


^ v* x 







































,\V V. 






























<3 * 







Interior of a Shoe Shop in the Civil War Period 




A Modern Interior 



% 



Shoe Industry 



By 
FREDERICK J. ALLEN, A.M. 

Investigator of Occupations for The Vocation Bureau of Boston 

and Author of 

"Business Employments," "The Law as a Vocation," 

and Other Vocational Studies 



PRICE, $1.25 



PUBLISHED BY 

The Vocation Bureau of Boston 
6 BEACON STREET 



TSiooo 



Copyright, 1916, by 
The Vocation Bureau op Boston 







THE CHAPPLE PRESS BOSTON 



APR 26 1916 



/ o> I 



PREFACE 

THIS book is the story of a great and highly 
organized industry. It is the result of two 
years' careful investigation and extensive 
supplementary study. Representative factories, 
manufacturing all varieties of boots and shoes, have 
been studied in every department and operation, 
through periods varying from one to six weeks in 
each. Information has been secured from manu- 
facturers, officials, department heads, and opera- 
tives, in every grade of service. The work of the 
factory and the processes of shoemaking are 
described as actually observed by the investigator. 

Thus the book has been built up out of the in- 
dustry itself. All available published material, 
both domestic and foreign, has been examined, but 
this volume is unique as an original study. More- 
over the manuscript has been read critically and 
approved by many authorities in the industry, both 
by those who have given information and by others, 
and by economists and labor union officials. 

The conditions and methods presented are those 
that are general and prevailing in this country. 

The great natural divisions of the industry are 
treated in their logical order, from its historical 
setting and the development of shoe machinery to 
the distribution of the finished product of the factory. 
Employment conditions are treated at length and 
valuable supplementary material is added. Im- 

(3) 



4 Preface 

portant statistical material is given throughout the 
chapters. An explanation of the terms used in 
shoemaking is made the final chapter, for consul- 
tation by the reader as may be found necessary. 
Numerous charts, diagrams, and illustrations are 
included. 

The book graphically presents extensive inside 
information gathered for permanent use. 

It is the purpose of this study to give the nature, 
history, magnitude, operations ' and processes, em- 
ployment opportunities and demands, and the 
future of the industry, both for those already in 
it and for other persons, and their advisers and 
teachers, who may be considering employment in 
this field of manufacture. 

Acknowledgment is due and heartily made to the 
hundreds of persons in the industry who have 
freely given information and suggestion in the 
course of this study. Grateful acknowledgment is 
made for special help, in most cases for a critical 
reading of the manuscript or proof sheets of the book, 
to the following persons and companies whose names 
are here used by permission: 

Mr. Thomas F. Anderson, Secretary of the New 
England Shoe and Leather Association. 

Mr. Eldon B. Keith, Treasurer, Mr. Charles 
E. Moore, General Superintendent, and Mr. 
Harry Dunbar, Leather Buyer, of the George 
E. Keith Company. 

Mr. Prescott I. Hersey, Vice-President of the 
Regal Shoe Company. 

Mr. Charles M. Lawrence, Assistant Manager 
and Superintendent of the Thomas G. Plant Com- 
pany. 



Preface 5 

Mr. Winfield L. Shaw, Labor Supervisor of the 
William H. McElwain Company. 

Mr. Charles T. Cahill, Advertising Manager of 
the United Shoe Machinery Company. 

Mr. Frank: W. Selden, Superintendent of the 
Hervey E. Gup till Company. 

Rice and Hutchins, Incorporated. 

The Allen-Foster- Willett Company. 

The Thompson-Crooker Shoe Company. 

Mr. Arthur D. Anderson, Editor of the Boot and 
Shoe Recorder. 

Mr. Frederick E. Atwood, Editor of American 
Shoemaking. 

Mr. Fred A. Gannon, Editor of the Lynn Daily 
Item and author of writings upon the shoe in- 
dustry. 

Prof. Carroll W. Doten, Department of Eco- 
nomics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

The Vocation Bureau. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Pag« 

Preface 3 

CHAPTER I 

Historical Sketch 

Ancient and Mediaeval Shoes 25 

A Recent Discovery of Ancient Shoes 26 

The London Cordwainers' Company 26 

The Moccasin of the American Indian 27 

The First American Shoemakers 27 

An Indenture Paper 28 

The Value of Shoes in Colonial Times 32 

Ancient Shoe Laws 33 

The Itinerant Shoemaker 33 

The First Shoe Shops 34 

A Shop of a Century Ago 35 

Ebenezer Breed and the Shoe Tariff 36 

The First Shoe Factories 39 

A Division of Labor in the Factory: "Teams" and "Gangs" 40 

A Quotation on the "Contract System" 41 

The Attitude of Early Shoemakers toward the Shoe Factory 42 

Organization in the Factory System ... 43 

Specialists 43 

The Magnitude of the Industry Today 44 

Boots and Shoes, Including Cut Stock and Findings — Value 

for Leading States: 1909 and 1899 47 

Table I — General Statistics. Summary for the Three 
Branches of the Shoe Industry for the United States. 

Census of 1909 48 

-Table II— Boot and Shoe Cut Stock 49 

Table III— Findings 50 

Table IV — Exports of Boots and Shoes from the United 
States during the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1914, as 
Reported by the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Com- 
merce, Department of Commerce 51 

(7) 



8 Table of Contents 

Page 

CHAPTER II 

Shoe Machinery 

The Invention of Shoe Machinery 55 

Three Stages of Development 56 

The Wooden Peg: 1815 56 

The Rolling Machine: 1845 57 

The Howe Sewing Machine: 1852 58 

The McKay Sewing Machine: 1858 58 

The Goodyear Welt Machine: 1862-1875 59 

Edge-Trimming and Heel-Trimming Machines: 1877 59 

| The Lasting Machine: 1883 60 

i The Pulling-Over Machine '. 61 

Joseph L. Joyce 61 

Power in Shoe Manufacture 61 

The Development of the Shoe Shank 62 

Operating a Complicated Machine 63 

The Leasing System 63 

The Care of Machinery 64 

The Standardization of Machinery 67 

CHAPTER III 

Last-Making 

Definition , 71 

* The Shaping of the Last 71 

• Last Material 72 

Hand Last-Making 72 

Modern Last-Making 73 

The Model Last 74 

The Use of the Last-Lathe 74 

Devices for Reducing Last in Use 75 

The Storage of Lasts 75 

CHAPTER IV 
Pattern-Making 

Definition 79 

The Pattern Designer 79 

'The Pattern Model 80 

The Trial Shoe 81 

The Number of Patterns to a Shoe 81 

Pattern Material 81 

Making Patterns , 82 

The Standardization of Lasts and Patterns 82 



Table of Contents 9 

Page 

Pattern-Making — Continued 

The Storage of Patterns 83 

Positions in the Pattern-Making Department 83 

The Pattern Maker 83 

The Price of Patterns 83 

CHAPTER V 
Leather 

Its Nature 89 

Tanning 89 

Ameacan Leather Manufacturing 90 

The Increasing Shortage of Leather : 91 

Leather Substitutes 92 

The Tannery Divisions of Hides and Skins 93 

A Side of Leather 94 

Divisions of Leather in Shoe Manufacture 94 

The Varieties of Upper Leather 94 

Kid 96 

Calfskin 97 

Side Leather 98 

Sheepskin 99 

Coltskin 99 

Sole Leather 99 

The Cut-Sole Industry 101 

Leather, Tanned, Curried, and Finished — Value of Pro- 
ducts for Leading States: 1909 and 1899 103 

Table V — Imports of Hides and Skins (Except Fur Skins) 
into the United States During the Fiscal Years Ending 
June 30, 1913 and 1914, by Principal Countries, as Re- 
ported by the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce 104 

CHAPTER VI 

The Department of Shoe Manufacture 

The Business Departments 109 

The Executive Officers 110 

The General Offices 110 

The Factory Offices 110 

* Chart of the Business Departments of Shoe Manufacture 111 

Factory Service and Office Service 112 

The Factory Departments 112 

The Modern Shoe Factory 113 

Chart of the Factory Departments 114 



.10 Table of Contents 

Pag* 

The Department of Shoe Manufacture — Continued 

i Chart of Factory Management 115 

/ The Typical Factory 116 



CHAPTER VII 
Methods in Shoe Manufacture 

The Chief Methods 123 

Illustrations of Methods Now in Use 124 

Cross Section of a Goodyear Welt Shoe 125 

Cross Section of a McKay Sewed Shoe 126 

Cross Section of a Standard Screwed Shoe 127 

; Cross Section of a Pegged Shoe 128 

j The Turned Shoe 129 

( The Lace Shoe 129 

The Different Stages in Goodyear Welt Manufacture... . 130 
Table VI — Census Statistics Showing the Number of 
Boots, Shoes, and Slippers Made in the United States 

for the Year 1909 by Each Method of Manufacture. . . 132 

CHAPTER VIII 

The Upper Leather Department 

The Importance of Detail in Shoe Manufacture 135 

Action Upon Receipt of an Order 136 

Chart of the Upper Leather Department 137 

The Day Sheet 138 

(A Typical Shoe Tag 139 

A Typical Shoe Factory Day Sheet 140 

The Upper Leather Room 141 

Measuring Upper Leather 141 

The Leather Sorter 142 

The Lining Sorter 143 

The Positions in a Sorting Department 143 

The Lining and Cloth-Cutting Section 144 

Positions in the Lining and Cloth Cutting Section 145 

The Cutting Room 145 

The Hand Cutter 145 

The Clicking Machine 148 

The Counting, Marking, and Skiving Department 152 

Skiving 152 

Nicking 153 

Dieing Out Straps 153 



Table of Contents 11 

Page 

The Upper Leather Department — Continued 

( Positions in the Skiving Department 153 

] Assembling Department 153 

(.Positions in the Assembling Department 154 

Time and Pay Statistics in the Cutting Department 154 

Table VII — Average Rates of Wages per Hour, Average 
Full-Time Weekly Earnings, and Average and Classified 
Full-Time Hours per Week in the United States, by Years, 

1910 to 1914— Cutting Department 156 

Table VIII — Average Rates of Wages per Hour, Average 
FultTime Weekly Earnings, and Average Full-Time Hours 

per Week, by States, 1914 — Cutting Department 158 

CHAPTER IX 
The Stitching Department 

Definition 163 

Variations in Stitching Room Processes 163 

The Number and Divisions of the Parts to be Stitched . . 164 

The Divisions of This Department 164 

The Lining Department 164 

Chart of the Stitching Department 165 

Positions in the Lining Department 166 

The Tip Department 166 

Perforating 167 

Positions in the Tip Department 168 

The Closing and Staying Department 169 

Positions in the Closing and Staying Department 170 

The Foxing Department 170 

J Positions in the Foxing Department 171 

The Top Stitching Department 172 

Positions in the Top Stitching Department 173 

The Button Hole Department 173 

Positions in the Button Hole Department 174 

The Vamping Department 175 

Positions in the Vamping Department 175 

The Toe Closing Department 175 

Positions in the Toe Closing Department 176 

Operating Stitching Machines 176 

Table IX — Average Rates of Wages per Hour, Average 
Full-Time Weekly Earnings, and Average and Classified 
Full-Time Hours per Week in the United States, by Years, 

1910 to 1914— Fitting or Stitching Department 178 



12 Table of Contents 

Pag* 

The Stitching Department — Continued 
Table X — Average Rates of Wages per Hour, Average Full- 
Time Weekly Earnings, and Average Full-Time Hours per 

Week, by States, 1914 — Fitting or Stitching Department 182 

CHAPTER X 
The Sole Leather Department 

Its Nature 187 

The Preparation of Sole Leather Parts 187 

frhe Division of Bottom Stock Fitting 188 

/The McKay Insole Department 188 

i Positions in the McKay Insole Department 189 

f The Welt Insole Department 189 

Channeling 189 

Slashing 190 

Wetting 190 

Randing 190 

Reinforced Insoles 190 

The Canvas Reinforcement 191 

Positions in the Welt Insole Department 191 

The Outer Sole Department 192 

Positions in the Outer Sole Department 192 

The Counter Department 193 

1 The Toe Box Department , 193 

\ The Heel Department 194 

iThe Processes of Making Heels 194 

Positions in Heel Making 195 

Employees in the Sole Leather Department 196 

Table XI — Average Rates of Wages per Hour, Average 
^ Full-Time Weekly Earnings, and Average and Classified 
I, Full-Time Hours per Week in the United States, by Years, 

1910 to 1914— Sole Leather Department 197 

Table XII — Average Rates of Wages per Hour, Average 
Full-Time Weekly Earnings, and Average Full-Time Hours 

per Week, by States, 1914 — Sole Leather Department. . 198 

CHAPTER XI 

The Making Department 

Its Nature 201 

The Lasting Department 202 

The Pulling-Over Machine 202 

Toe and Heel Wiping 202 



Table of Contents 13 

Page 

The Making Depabtment — Continued 

The Upper Trimming Machine 205 

Positions in the Lasting Department 205 

The Welt Bottoming Department 205 

Welting 206 

Welt Beating 206 

Sole Laying 206 

Rough Rounding 206 

(Heel Seat Nailing 209 

/Sole Sewing 209 

/ Channel Laying 210 

| Leveling 210 

Welt Finishing 210 

Other Finishing Processes 210 

j Positions in the Welt Bottoming Department 213 

,i The McKay Bottoming Department 217 

I Processes Connected with the McKay Method 217 

Positions in the McKay Bottoming Department 218 

j The Heeling Department 221 

Blind Nailing 221 

| Slugging 221 

Heel Trimming 221 

Positions in the Heeling Department 222 

The Turned Shoe Department 222 

Lasting the Turned Shoe 222 

Positions in the Turned Shoe Department 225 

The Standard Screw, Pegged, and Nailed Departments . . 226 

Work in the Making Department 229 

Table XIII — Average Rates of Wages per Hour, Average 
Full-Time Weekly Earnings, and Average and Classified 
Full-Time Hours per Week in the United States, by Years, 

1910 to 1914— Lasting Department 230 

Table XD7 — Average Rates of Wages per Hour, Average 
Full-Time Weekly Earnings, and Average Full-Time Hours 

per Week, by States, 1914 — Lasting Department 234 

Table XV — Average Rates of Wages per Hour, Average 
Full-Time Weekly Earnings, and Average and Classified 
Full-Time Hours per Week in the United States, by Years, 

1910 to 1914— Bottoming Department 236 

Table XVI — Average Rates of Wages per Hour, Average 
Full-Time Weekly Earnings, and Average Full-Time Hours 

per Week, by States, 1914 — Bottoming Department 240 



14 Table of Contents 

Page 

CHAPTER XII 

Finishing, Treeing, Packing, and Shipping 

Additional Departments 247 

Finishing 248 

The Tip Repairing Department 248 

The Treeing Department 249 

Embossing 250 

Ironing 250 

Inspecting 251 

Positions in the Treeing Department 251 

The Packing Department 251 

positions in the Packing Room 252 

"jfhe Shipping Department 252 

Positions in the Shipping Department 253 

Table XVII — Average Rates of Wages per Hour, Average 
Full-Time Weekly Earnings, and Average and Classified 
Full-Time Hours per Week in the United States, by Years, 

1910 to 1914— Finishing Department 254 

Table XVIII — Average Rates of Wages per Hour, Average 
Full-Time Weekly Earnings, and Average Full-Time Hours 
per Week, by States, 1914 — Finishing Department — 

Other Employees, all Departments 256 

CHAPTER XIII 

Employment Conditions and Supplementary Material 

The Sex Division of Employees 261 

The Divisions of Employees Among Departments 262 

Shoe Manufacture Highly Specialized 263 

Seasons 263 

Shoemaking a Trade 264 

Entering Upon Work rn a Shoe Factory 264 

Promotion 265 

Securing Skilled Labor 265 

Schools and Courses for Shoemaking 266 

Quotation from a Report upon Industrial Education in 

Shoe Manufacture 267 

The Shoe Superintendent 271 

The Shoe Foreman 272 

The Quality Man and the Quantity Man 273 

The Efficiency Engineer 274 



Table of Contents 15 

Page 

Employment Conditions and Supplementary Material 
— Continued 

The Monotony of Shoemaking 275 

Quotation upon Efforts in Some Factories to Lessen 

Monotony 276 

Social Service in the Shoe Factory 277 

Quotation from a Government Study of Social Service . . 277 
General Sanitary Conditions Observed in Boot and Shoe 

Factories 280 

Piece and Time Payment 283 

The Best Paying Processes 283 

Wages and Variation in Employment 284 

Table XLX — Average Full-Time Hours per Week, Rates 

of Wages per Hour, and Full-Time Weekly Earnings, and 

Per Cent, of Employees Earning each Classified Rate of 

Wages per Hour in the Principal Occupations in 1914 . . 286 

Variation in Number of Employees, Total Pay Rolls, and 

Bi-weekly Earnings per Employee 288 

Sex and Age Distribution of Wage Earners in the United 

States by Leading Industries: 1909 289 

Table XX — Sex and Age Distribution by Leading Indus- 
tries: 1909 290 

The Shoe Repairing Industry 292 

Earnings in the Repair Shop 295 

The Shoe Factory Chemist 295 



CHAPTER XIV 

An Explanation op the Terms Used in Shoemaking 

The Need of Knowing These Terms 299 

Acid-tanned 300 

Adjustment 300 

Aloft 300 

Anatomic 300 

Arch 300 

Assembling 300 

Backstay 300 

Back Strap 300 

Bal 300 

Ball 301 

Beading 301 



16 Table of Contents 

Page 

An Explanation of the Terms Used in Shoemaking 
— Continued 

Beating Out 301 

Bellows Tongue 301 

Belting 301 

Bench-Made 301 

Bend 301 

Blackball 301 

Blacking the Edge. 301 

Blind Eyelet 301 

Blocking 302 

Blucher 302 

Boot 302 

Bottom Filling m 302 

Bottom Finishing 302 

Bottom Scouring 302 

Box 302 

Brogan 302 

Broken Arch 302 

Brushing 302 

Buckram 303 

Buffing 303 

Button 303 

Button Fly 303 

Cabaretta 303 

Calfskin 303 

Calking Machine 303 

Carton 303 

Case 304 

Channel 304 

Channel Screwed 304 

Channel Stitched 304 

Channel Turning 304 

Chrome-tanned 304 

Clicking 304 

Closing On 304 

Collar 304 

Colonial 304 

Combination Last 304 

Congress Gaiter 305 

Copper Toe 305 

Counter 305 



Table of Contents 17 

Page 

An Explanation of the Terms Used in Shoemakinq 
— Continued 

Cravenette 305 

Creasing Vamp 305 

Crimping 305 

Cushion Sole 305 

Custom-Made 305 

Cut-off Vamp 305 

Dieing or Dinking 305 

Dom Pedro 305 

Dressing 305 

Edge Seating 305 

Edge Trimming 306 

Embossing 306 

Eyelet 306 

Fabric 306 

Facing 306 

Fair Stitch 306 

Filler 306 

Findings 306 

Finish 306 

Fitting 306 

Fitting Room 307 

Form 307 

Foxing 307 

French Size Marking 307 

Gaiter 307 

Gem Insoles 307 

Golf Shoe 307 

Goodyear Welt 307 

Gore 307 

Grading 307 

Half-Sole 307 

Heel 307 

Heel Scouring 308 

Heel Seat 308 

Heel Shaving 308 

Hemlock Tanned 308 

Inseam Trimming 308 

Insole 309 

Inspecting 309 

Ironing Uppers 309 

*2 



18 Table of Contents 

Page 

An Explanation of the Terms Used in Shoemaking 
— Continued 

Lace 309 

Lace Stay 309 

Lap Stone 309 

Last 309 

Lasting 309 

Leveling 309 

Lift 309 

Lining 309 

Low-cut 309 

McKay Sewed 309 

Measurement 310 

Moulding 310 

Naumkeaging 310 

Oak-Tanned. 310 

Oxford 310 

Pasted Counter 310 

Pattern 310 

Pegging 310 

Perforating 310 

Polish 310 

Pressing 310 

Pulling Lasts 310 

Pulling Over 311 

Pump 311 

Quarter 311 

Rand 311 

Relasting 311 

Repairing 311 

Rolling 311 

Rough Rounding 311 

Royalties 311 

Rubber Cement 311 

Rubber Shoes 311 

Sample 312 

Sandal 312 

Screw Fastened 312 

Shank 312 

Shank Burnishing 312 

Shanking Out 312 



Table of Contents 19 

Page 

An Explanation of the Terms Used in Shoemaking 
— Continued 

Size 312 

Skiving 312 

Slipper 313 

Slugging 313 

Sneaker 313 

Sock Lining 313 

Soft Tips 313 

Soles and Sole Leather 313 

Sole paying 313 

Sorting. 313 

Split. 313 

Spring 313 

Stamping 313 

Stay 313 

Stitch Separating 313 

Stitched Aloft 313 

Stock Keeping 314 

Stripping 314 

Style 314 

Tan 314 

Tanning 314 

Tap 314 

Tempering 314 

Tip 314 

Tongue 314 

Top 314 

Top Facing 314 

Top Lift. 314 

Top Stitching 314 

Treeing 315 

Trimming Cutting 315 

Turned Shoe 315 

Turnover 315 

Upper 315 

Vamp 315 

Vamping 315 

Viscolizing 315 

Welt 315 

Welt Beating 315 



20 Table of Contents 

Page 

An Explanation of the Teems Used in Shoemaking 
— Continued 

Welting 316 

Wheeling 316 

Width 316 

Shoe and Leather Bibliography 317 

Shoe and Leather Journals 319 

Alphabetical Index 320-3 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

1. Frontispiece 

Interior of a Shoe Shop in the Civil War Period. 
A Modern Interior. 

2. An Old Time Shoemaker 29 

3. An Old Time Shoe Shop Placed beside a Modern Factory 37 

4. Facsimiles of Early Royalty Stamps 67 

5. A Side of Leather Divided as to Quality 95 

6. A Typical Modern Shoe Factory, Manchester, N. H. . 117 

7. Cross Section of a Goodyear Welt Shoe 125 

8. Cross Section of a McKay Sewed Shoe 126 

9. Cross Section of a Standard Screwed Shoe 127 

10. Cross Section of a Pegged Shoe 128 

11. A Goodyear Welt Shoe in the Different Stages of Manu- 

facture 131 

12. A Typical Shoe Tag 139 

13. A Typical Shoe Factory Day Sheet 140 

14. A Skin Showing how Patterns Are Placed in Cutting. 147 

15. Operating the Clicking Machine 149 

16. Operating the Rex Pulling Over Machine 203 

17. Operating the U. S. M. Co. Lasting Machine 207 

18. Operating the Goodyear Welt Sewing Machine 211 

19. Operating the Goodyear Rough Rounding Machine . . 215 

20. Operating the Goodyear Stitching Machine 219 

21. Operating the Sole Leveling Machine 223 

22. Operating the Heeling Machine 227 



(21) 



THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

Chapter I 
HISTORICAL SKETCH 



23 



CHAPTER I 
Historical Sketch 

Ancient and Mediaeval Shoes. The sandal was 
the first known form of footwear. It was the uni- 
versal type among all early peoples, as it is now in 
all warm countries. Pictures of ancient Egyptian 
sandal makers of 1495 B. C. have been found in 
Thebes, showing methods something like those of 
the modern hand shoemaker who sat upon a low 
bench or form and held his work upon his knees. 
The earliest known form of footwear varied from a 
strip of leather fastened underneath as a protection 
from the ground to coverings ornamented with gems 
and gold. Sandals of papyrus and of leather were 
in quite general use in ancient times. The Teutonic 
tribes of the north of Europe wore a leather protec- 
tion upon the leg below the knee. The Romans 
adapted this custom by attaching the leg covering 
to the sandal, at first leaving the toe open and later 
closing it, thus making a complete boot. Such a 
boot or shoe was worn throughout the Middle Ages. 
In this period the shoe became one of the most im- 
portant and conspicuous articles of dress, and its 
length varied with the social or political standing 
of the wearer. Thus a prince wore a shoe thirty 

(25) 



26 The Shoe Industry 

inches long; a baron, one of twenty-four inches; 
a knight, one of eighteen, and so on. 

A Recent Discovery of Ancient Shoes. "The 
two-thousand-year-old footwear exhibit in the 
museum of the United Shoe Machinery Company, 
which was recently taken from excavations made on 
the site of the ancient city of Antinoe, established 
A. D. 130, impresses the observer with the fact that 
ancient shoemakers were by no means lacking in 
skill. In looking at the exhibit, one is amazed to 
see the modern effects of many of the samples. The 
shoes are splendidly preserved, and some of the 
knitted sandals have the appearance of having been 
given only a few weeks' hard wear. Attempts at 
ornamentations show rosettes made of leather, and 
made up in a variety of designs."* 

The London Cordwainers' Company. In the 
year 1272 King Henry III granted an ordinance 
which established the Cordwainers' and Cobelers' 
Company of London, as it was first known, and 
gave it power to supervise the trade generally "for 
the relief and advancement of the whole business, 
and to the end that all frauds and deceits may here- 
after be avoided." While "cordewaner," a word 
originating from the use of leather coming from 
Cordova in Spain, was the name used generally for 
the shoemaker of the time, the term included also 
workers in the associated trades, such as leather 
curriers, tanners, purse and pouch makers, and 



•From American Shoemaking, for November 7, 1914. 



Historical Sketch 27 

girdlers. The "cobeler" became later the worker 
in old leather, or merely the shoe repairer. 

The Cordwainers' Company has become simply a 
guild, but one of the oldest and most honored in the 
city of London. 

Marry, because you have drank with the King, 
And the King hath so graciously pledged you, 
You shall no more be called shoemakers; 
But you and yours, to the world's end, 
Shall be called the trade of the gentle craft. 

— George-a-Greene, Old Play, 1500. 

The Moccasin of the American Indian. The 
American Indian made rawhide leather by simple 
processes, and sewed pieces of it into a foot covering 
called a "moccasin." The white men who first 
came brought shoes from the mother countries and 
for many years continued to import them; but the 
pioneers also wore the moccasins of the native, 
sometimes making them, as well as hunting 
shirts and leggings, from leather tanned by the 
Indian. 

The First American Shoemakers. The first shoe- 
makers in this country settled in Massachusetts, 
Thomas Beard and Isaac Rickerman coming to 
Salem in 1629, and Philip Kertland to Lynn in 1635. 
The advent of each of these men was heralded as 
an important event and special favors were granted 
to them. They brought the methods of a trade 
still primitive though ancient in Europe. They 
used the leather apron, lap stone, hammer, wooden 



28 The Shoe Industry 

pegs, hand-made thread, boot-tree last, such as 
thousands of cobblers use even in this day of ma- 
chinery. John Adam Dagyr, a Welshman, came to 
Lynn in 1750. He was a master-craftsman, and 
Lynn, which had already become the leading shoe 
town in the Colonies, advanced still more rapidly 
in the industry. Dagyr was the first organizer of 
the industry in this country. The more ingenious 
colonists learned to make shoes by hand, often 
serving an apprenticeship of seven years, and the 
trade gradually passed far beyond its European 
stages. From these simple beginnings sprang the 
great industry of American shoemaking. 

An Indenture Paper. Following is a copy of the 
original agreement by which boys were apprenticed 
to the shoemaking trade in the early part of the last 
century. The original is now in the possession of 
Mr. Charles Wellesley Allen, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

"This Indenture, Witnesseth, 

"That John Goedersoon, now aged fourteen 
years, eight months and twenty-seven days, 
by and with the consent of his step-father, John 
Wright, and his mother, Mary Wright, hath 
put himself and, by these presents, doth vol- 
untarily and of his own free will and accord, 
put himself Apprentice to Frederick Seely of 
the City of New York, Cordwainer, and after 
the manner of an Apprentice to serve from the 
day of the date hereof for and during, and until 
the full end and term of six years, three months 




29 



Historical Sketch 31 

and three days next ensuing during all which 
time the said Apprentice shall his master faith- 
fully serve, his secrets keep, his commands 
everywhere readily obey. 

"He shall do no damage to his said Master 
nor see it done by others, without letting or 
giving notice thereof to his said Master. He 
shall not waste his said Master's goods nor lend 
unlawfully to any. He shall not contract matri- 
mony within the said term; at Cards, Dice, or 
any unlawful game he shall not play, whereby 
his Master may have damages. With his own 
goods nor the goods of others, without license 
from his said Master. . . . He shall neither 
buy nor sell. He shall not absent himself, day 
or night, from his said Master's service without 
leave, nor haunt ale-houses, taverns or play- 
houses; but in all things behave as a faithful 
Apprentice ought to do, during the said term. 

"And the said Master shall use the utmost 
of his endeavors to teach, or cause to be taught 
or instructed, the said Apprentice in the trade, 
or mystery, of a Cordwainer, and procure and 
provide for him sufficient meat, drink, washing, 
lodging and clothing fit for an Apprentice, during 
the said term of service and four quarters of night 
schooling during the said term. 

"And for the true performance of all and 
singular the Covenants and Agreements afore- 
said, the said parties bind themselves each unto 
the other firmly by these presents. In Wit- 
ness Whereof the said parties have inter- 
changeably set their hands and seals hereunto. 
Dated the sixth day of August, in the thirty- 
fifth year of the Independence of the United 



32 The Shoe Industry 

States of America, and in the year of our Lord 
eighteen hundred and eleven. 
"Sealed and delivered in the 
presence of L. Cowdrey. 

"Frederick Seely, 
"John Goedersoon, 
"Maria Wright, 
"Jahan Wright." 

The Value of Shoes in Colonial Times. In spite 
of the abundance of wild and domestic animals 
whose skins might serve as leather in Colonial times, 
the prices of leather and of rough hand-made foot- 
wear were comparatively high. Leather of the finer 
sort was still imported from England. Shoes were 
the product of quite laborious processes and of con- 
siderable skill and ingenuity. They might be 
purchased by labor on the land or in the forest, by 
the barter of other goods or by hard English shillings. 
In the law of 1720-21 Pennsylvania fixed the maxi- 
mum price at which shoes should be sold at retail 
in the colony, as "six shillings and six pence for a 
pair of good, well-made men's shoes," five shillings for 
women's shoes, and proportionately less for children's 
shoes. This law fixed the price of leather also. 

With many persons, especially children and youth, 
shoes were little or seldom worn, appearing only on 
special occasions. Often the Colonial family walked 
bare-foot to church on Sunday morning, each mem- 
ber carrying his shoes in his hand until near the 
church door when they were put on the feet. 



Historical Sketch 38 

Ancient Shoe Laws. The law makers of the 
Colonies from the beginning set regulations over the 
activities and employments of the people. The 
Province of Pennsylvania in 1720-21 made it a crime 
for a tanner of leather to become a currier or a shoe- 
maker. Section 7 of the law reads as follows: 

"And be it further enacted by the authority 
aforesaid that no person occupying or using 
the mystery of the shoemaker, shall make or 
cause to be made any boots, shoes, or slippers 
for sale but of leather well and sufficiently 
sewed with good thread well twisted and made 
and well waxed. Nor shall mingle the over- 
leather, that is to say part of the overleather 
being of neats leather and part of calves leather. 
Nor shall put into any boots, shoes, or slippers 
for sale, any leather made of sheepskin, bulls 
hide, or horses hide; or into the upper leather 
of any shoes or slippers, or into the inner part 
of any boots (inner part of the shoe excepted) 
any part of any hide from which the sole leather 
is cut, called the neck, shank, flange, powle, or 
cheek, upon paying a forfeiture of all such shoes, 
boots, and slippers, to be divided and applied 
in the manner directed by this act." 

The same Act provided that shoes sold above the 
prices fixed by Provincial law or above the rates 
set from time to time by the mayor, aldermen, and 
justices of the courts, should be subject to forfeiture. 

The Itinerant Shoemaker. The Colonial shoe- 
maker often traveled from house to house or village 



34 The Shoe Industry 

to village, as a journeyman, doing repair work and 
making new shoes for all the members of a family. 
The market for home-made shoes was limited in 
those days, and many of the shoemakers practiced 
other arts, such as sharpening knives, saws, and 
axes, mending furniture, repairing clocks, cutting 
hair, and pulling teeth. The traveling cobbler* 
with his kit of simple tools and with the rough and 
heavy leather of the period, was a welcome dis- 
penser of service and of news and gossip among the 
colonists. 

The First Shoe Shops. No change of importance 
from either home work or itinerant employment 
occurred in shoemaking in the colonies until about 
the middle of the eighteenth century, when the 
more enterprising cobblers began to employ others 
and work became more and more confined to local 
shops. Hand processes continued, with some sub- 
division of labor, one man cutting, another sewing, 
another fastening on the bottom of the boot with 
pegs, and so on. Often in the home or little shop 
the hand sewing was done by girls and women 
whose hands were more deft for such a process. 

Poor lone Hannah, 
Sitting at the window, binding shoes ! 

Faded, wrinkled, 
Sitting, stitching, in a mournful muse ! 
Brighte-eyed beauty once was she, 
When the bloom was on the tree. 
Spring and winter 
Hannah's at the window, binding shoes. 

— "Hannah Binding Shoes," Lucy Larcom. 



Historical Sketch 35 

The New England shoemakers led in the industry. 
There were a few Dutch shoemakers in New 
York, but scarcely any in agricultural communities 
of the South. The market of the New England 
maker, therefore, included all the colonies scattered 
along the Atlantic coast. In many cases the pro- 
prietor of the shop made weekly or monthly trips on 
foot or with an ox-cart to a village or larger com- 
munity to dispose of his shop-made goods, and shoe 
traffic gradually arose. 

Often the shop was closed altogether in the sum- 
mer, when work upon the land was necessary or 
fishing for those situated along the sea coast. 

Frequently the home served as a shop, the family 
receiving shoe materials from the manufacturer or 
from the village storekeeper who acted for the manu- 
facturer or tanner. 

A Shop of a Century Ago. "Probably the oldest 
shoe factory now standing in this country is the 
Putnam shop, near the Newburyport turnpike, in 
the town of Danvers, Mass. It was built before 
the Revolution. It was one of the buildings on the 
old Putnam farm, the birthplace of General Putnam 
('Old Put') of Revolutionary fame. It was men- 
tioned in the first United* States census of manu- 
facturing, taken in 1786, and it was then evidently 
a factory of importance. It is still in excellent 
state of preservation. Some of the tools that were 
used by its occupants are still preserved. 

"The early tools are of wrought iron. The pat- 

3* 



36 The Shoe Industry 

terns are of board. Cutters who are used to hand- 
ling thin patterns of today would think these board 
patterns very coarse. Lasts saved in the old shop 
are clumsy. The books show that they cost from 
twenty-five cents to one dollar a pair, the price being 
determined by the style. Apparently, the last- 
makers of old well knew how to capitalize style. 

"All the shoes made in this old shop were made by 
hand. The shoemakers were paid from fifteen to 
twenty-five cents a pair for their labor, and they 
earned from five dollars to ten dollars a week, the 
rise and fall of their wages being determined chiefly 
by the way that orders came in. At first shoes made 
in this shop were sent in ox-wagons to Boston. 
Later they were sent in horse wagons. They were 
packed in barrels."* 

Ebenezer Breed and the Shoe Tariff. Following 
the Revolution the break between the Colonies and 
the Mother Country encouraged American indus- 
tries in many lines. American shoemaking, how- 
ever, still suffered from the competition of imported 
shoes. The habit of wearing English-made shoes 
was hard to break and many of the well-to-do people 
continued to demand them. 

At this crisis, in which an industry of great possi- 
bilities seemed likely to be restricted and confined 
mainly to the cheaper lines of product, appeared the 
first great leader of American shoe manufacture, 
Ebenezer Breed. Breed was born in Lynn, of 



*From Boot and Shoe Recorder, Boston. 




37 



Historical Sketch 39 

Quaker parentage, and here learned the shoe trade. 
While still a young man he removed to Philadelphia, 
then the Nation's capital. Here he gained the 
friendship of prominent people, including members 
of the National Congress. He proposed a protective 
tariff on boots and shoes, and on this suggestion 
Congress passed a shoe tariff act in 1789. 

Breed was a wholesale boot and shoe merchant, 
and prospered greatly after the passage of the act. 
He was recognized as a leading American and was 
feted at home and abroad, visiting France and 
England. 

Through misfortune in personal affairs, Ebenezer* 
Breed lost his business and property and his eyesight. 
He died in the almshouse of his native town of 
Lynn. 

The following has been said of him: 

"The man who was so powerful as to build 
up a great wall of protection about the entire 
American shoe trade spent his declining days 
quietly and peacefully in an almshouse, for- 
gotten by nearly everyone but the Quakers." 

The First Shoe Factories. Soon after the Revo- 
lution shoemakers who wished to increase their 
output or had ambition to became manufacturers 
or employers, engaged other shoemakers to work 
for them on a larger scale than formerly, thus 
establishing the factory system and introducing a 
distinction between capital and labor in the industry. 



40 The Shoe Industry 

The early manufacturers devoted themselves 
more and more to buying materials in quantities and 
to selling the products of their factories. Larger 
and larger factories were erected. In many cases 
shoemakers took materials from the factory and made 
shoes at home, each in his little shop. 

A Division of Labor in the Factory: "Teams" 
and "Gangs." It was known that workmen were 
usually expert in particular operations, for instance, 
in cutting and fitting uppers, or in preparing soles, 
or in sewing the sole to the upper. This fact pro- 
duced a division of labor. Shoemaking in factories 
during this period, until the introduction of machin- 
ery, was marked, also, by the custom of having 
what were called "teams'* of workers. A team 
consisted of a number of workers, each performing 
a particular process, the whole team producing an 
entire shoe. On the other hand, a team might con- 
sist of a group of men all experts upon a single 
process. Such a team was known usually as a 
"gang." A gang of bottomers, for instance, often 
went from factory to factory, or from employer to 
employer, having a contract with each to bottom 
all the shoes in process of making. 

The team or gang system gradually passed largely 
out of use after the introduction of shoe machinery. 
The term is still used in some factories, especially 
in the making or bottoming room. In one factory 
only, however, among the many investigated in 
obtaining material for this book, was there found a 



Historical Sketch 41 

gang working as in earlier times. This was a team 
of six men making an entire shoe of high quality 
for a fine class of trade. 

A Quotation on the "Contract System." The 
following quotation gives an interesting picture of 
the contract system and team work:* 

"With the advent of the McKay machine 
came new methods, new systems, and new styles. 

"The contract system was the popular way 
of making shoes. The manufacturer had a room 
in the shoe district, where he cut the uppers and 
kept his stock; he would then enter into a con- 
tract with some man to fit them. When uppers 
were fitted he would again make another contract 
with some firm to bottom them. Thus it will 
be seen that very little equipment was needed 
to manufacture shoes. All the room required 
was for cutting and packing. Our large and 
modern factories of today, with their splendid 
equipment of almost humanly intelligent ma- 
chinery and skilled operators, giving employ- 
ment to thousands of men and women, and 
turning out annually 3,000,000 pairs of shoes, 
was never the dream of the old-time shoe- 
maker. 

"Many evils grew from the contract system. 
It was a common thing for those men who had 
charge of the contract fitting and bottoming 
rooms to underbid each other, and he whose 
bid was the lowest got the work. He saw to 
it, however, that his margin of profit remained 



*G. P. Lawrence, in American Shoe-making, Boston, January 16, 1015. 



42 The Shoe Industry 

the same, for he would cut the piece price of his 
employees enough to make up the difference, 
and thus his margin of profit remained the same. 

"Labor organizations did much to correct 
this evil. 

"Prices for bottoming ranged from twenty- 
seven and one-half to forty-five cents a pair. 
Contractors wanted the lion's share for their 
profit, and got it. 

"The McKay sewing machine and a few stock 
fitting machines were all the machines used 
at the time of the five-handed team, and they 
were operated by foot power. 

"Stock fitting was a simple operation, con- 
sisting of rounding and channeling and counter 
skiving (no moulding) . Five men were required 
to build a shoe. A bench six feet long and four 
feet wide, with two shelves in the center, two 
men on each side and one at the end, a laster, 
beater-out, trimmer, edge setter and bottom 
finisher, constituted the team, and twelve pairs 
of lasts were given to each team." 

The Attitude of Early Shoemakers towards the 
Shoe Factory. The typical shoemaker had long 
been his own master. He worked in his little shop 
at home as he pleased, doing perhaps farm work or 
engaging in some other occupation a part of the year. 
He objected to serving any other master than him- 
self, and believed that obedience to a foreman was 
a surrender of his personal rights and liberties. 
He was reluctant to submit to factory hours, from 
seven o'clock in the morning until six at night, and 



Historical Sketch 43 

to exacting factory regulations. He opposed in like 
manner the introduction of labor-saving machinery. 

The general industrial growth of communities 
was, however, an irresistible though a slowly coming 
tide. Progressive methods of employment and the 
introduction of machinery gradually broke down 
all opposition. The individual shoemaker or cobbler 
has survived to the present day, but will probably 
disappear with this generation. 

Organization in the Factory System. Factories 
were divided into the natural divisions or depart- 
ments of shoemaking. Men were set apart to 
organize and train employees. Superintendents and 
foremen or overseers of departments appeared. 
Systems were worked out for the procuring and care 
of raw materials, for making shoes in quantity, for 
moving them in the processes of making from one 
factory room to an other, for having each lot handled 
and finished as a unit, and for disposing of factory 
product through agencies established in market cen- 
ters, and through traveling salesmen. Thus factory 
organization produced also business organization. 

Specialists. Modern factory and business or- 
ganization calls for specialists in each department. 
The large shoe manufacturing firm of today has a 
specialist in leather buying, another in procuring 
lasts and patterns, another in charge of miscel- 
laneous supplies, another as manager of sales, another 
as factory manager or in charge of a factory de- 
partment, another as financier, another for ad- 



44 The Shoe Industry 

vertising, and so on through all the great divisions 
of the firm's activities. 

The Magnitude of the Industry Today. The 
growth of the shoe industry in this country has been 
marvelous. The greatest gain has taken place 
within the last twenty years, since the invention 
and wide-spread use of the more important shoe 
machines. Although full statistical information is 
given in the census tables included in this volume, a 
few illustrative figures and facts may be presented 
here. According to the Census of 1909 there were 
in thirty-one states of the Union 1,918 factories 
making shoes and allied products. The capital 
invested in the industry was $222,324,000, and the 
number of employees was 215,000. Eight hundred 
and sixty of the factories were in Massachusetts. 
There has been a constant increase in the industry 
since that time, especially in invested capital and 
employees. The persons connected with shoe manu- 
facture probably now number nearly 250,000. The 
leading states in their order are, Massachusetts, 
Missouri, New York, New Hampshire, Ohio, Penn- 
sylvania, and Illinois. 

Boston is the leading center of the world in the 
shoe and leather trade; Chicago, in trade in 
untanned hides. 

Lynn, the first home of the industry in this country, 
has long been the leading city in the manufacture 
of shoes and shoe material. Sixty-five per cent, of 
the manufactures of the city are in these lines. It 



Historical Sketch 45 

has over two hundred shoe factories, employing 
18,000 people and $18,000,000 in capital, and pro- 
ducing goods to the value of $47,000,000 annually. 

Brockton, Mass., ranks second in the industry, 
with eighty-six per cent, of its manufactures in shoes. 
It has seventy-five factories, employing about 14,000 
people and a capital of over $14,000,000, and pro- 
ducing shoes worth $40,000,000 annually. 

Other cities in the order of magnitude of shoe 
manufacture are, St. Louis, Mo., Haverhill, Mass., 
Boston, New York, Manchester, N. H., Cincinnati, 
Rochester, N. Y., and Chicago. 

The exportation of shoes has come mostly within 
twelve or fifteen years, and has grown very rapidly 
within this time. The Massachusetts North Shore 
district, for example, now sends abroad more than 
ten million dollars' worth of shoes each year. 

The United States is not only leading the world 
in making shoes, but is finding markets increasingly 
in all countries. 

The New England Shoe and Leather Association 
has recently issued a circular from which the follow- 
ing statements are drawn: 

New England produces fifty-seven per cent, 
of the boots, shoes, slippers and cut-stock and 
findings, and a large percentage of all the leather 
made in this country. 

It has 1,000 shoe factories and cut-stock 
and findings establishments, principally in 
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. 



46 The Shoe Industry 

In these industries $111,000,000 capital is 
invested, 100,000 wage-earners are employed, 
and the annual value of product is approximately 
$300,000,000. 

It has about 175 establishments for the pro- 
duction of leather, representing $45,000,000 of 
invested capital and $45,000,000 annual value 
of product. 

It also leads in the manufacture of rubber 
goods, Massachusetts alone annually producing 
$50,000,000 worth of rubber boots and shoes 
and miscellaneous articles. 

Massachusetts is virtually the birthplace of 
the tanning and boot and shoe industries of the 
United States, and has possessed these allied 
industries for nearly three hundred years. 

In the boot and shoe and cut-stock and find- 
ings industries, it has about 875 establishments, 
with more than $90,000,000 invested capital, 
83,000 wage-earners and annual value of pro- 
duct of $236,000,000. 

It has sixty-three cities and towns in which 
the shoe manufacturing industry is carried on. 

It has one county, Essex, which produces 
one-seventh of the combined boot and shoe 
and leather product of the United States. 

Brockton, the leading city in which men's 
shoes are manufactured; Haverhill, the foremost 
slipper manufacturing city, and Lynn, the 
world's greatest women's footwear center, are 
notable examples of Massachusetts' shoemaking 
activity. 

More than 3,000,000,000 pairs of shoes have 
been shipped from Boston in the past forty- 
five years. 



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Chapter II 
SHOE MACHINERY 



(63) *4 



CHAPTER II 

Shoe Machinery 

The Invention of Shoe Machinery. The inven- 
tion o*f shoe machinery, from about the middle of 
the last century, has revolutionized shoe manu- 
facture. The story of the patient development of 
one machine after another, until the dexterity of 
the human fingers has been equalled, reads like a 
romance. Most of these machines have been in- 
vented by shoe workers themselves, often after long 
toil and study of particular processes. Inventive 
genius and mechanical skill have been granted about 
7,000 patents on shoe machinery since the establish- 
ment of the United States Patent Office in 1836. 
Sometimes there have been a score or more on a 
single machine, to protect it as it has been built up 
part by part. New patents are constantly being 
granted, nineteen being announced in one week in 
November, 1914, during the preparation of this 
chapter. 

In making an ordinary shoe today there are one 
hundred and seventy-four machine operations, per- 
formed upon one hundred and fifty-four different 
machines, and thirty-six hand operations, or alto- 
gether two hundred and ten processes. About three 

(55) 



56 The Shoe Industry 

hundred different machines are used in the manu- 
facture of all kinds of footwear, and the number of 
processes is considerably increased. 

Three Stages of Development. There are three 
conspicuous stages of development in the invention 
and use of shoe machinery. 

The first stage is that of the ujyper-stitching 
machine, by which the top parts of the shoe are 
machine-sewed instead of being sewed by hand. 

The second is that of the sole-sewing machine, 
by which the soles are attached to the uppers with 
a machine instead of by hand. 

The third stage is that of machine-welting, in its 
modern form. This is an improved method of 
sewing on the sole, so that the shoe is flexible, as 
was the old hand-sewed shoe. 

Other machines are subordinate to these in 
general importance, and mark steps of advance- 
ment in minor processes and features of shoe manu- 
facture. 

An account of the more important machines used 
in shoe manufacture is given herewith, in the 
order of their invention. As we shall meet these 
in operation in our study of factory departments, 
some knowledge of each machine will help our 
understanding of a process and of the running of 
the machine as an occupation. 

The Wooden Peg: 1815. Heels were fastened 
to shoes by hand-made wooden pegs as early as the 
sixteenth century. Preceding the use of shoe ma- 



Shoe Machinery 57 

chines came the machine-made peg in 1815. Up 
to that time the bottom of the shoe had been fastened 
to the upper by sewing with heavy thread or "waxed 
ends," and in the case of some heavy boots by 
copper nails. This sewing was a slow, hard process 
and was necessarily done by men. The invention 
of the shoe peg was a great gain. The first pegs were 
whittled out by hand in imitation of the nail. When 
pegs were properly driven, piercing both the outer 
and inner sole, with the upper leather well drawn 
in between the two, the result was a great improve- 
ment in strength and durability over the old method. 
But the pegged shoes were less flexible than the sewed 
shoe, and many persons still asked for shoes made 
by the old method. 

A pegging machine was invented in 1833, but 
none came into general or successful use until about 
1857. The pegging machine and the McKay 
machine revolutionized the industry, but did not 
put an end to hand shoemaking, which has con- 
tinued to the present day, yet with a constantly 
diminishing importance. The great gain, of course, 
was the large increase in the number of shoes made, 
with a lowering of the retail price and a widening 
shoe market. 

The Rolling Machine: 1845. The first machine 
to be widely used in shoemaking was the rolling 
machine for solidifying sole leather, which was 
introduced about 1845. Formerly the shoemaker 
was obliged to pound sole leather upon a lapstone 



58 The Shoe Industry 

with a flat-faced hammer, to make it firm and dur- 
able for the shoe bottom. This was a laborious 
process, and sometimes took a half hour for what 
can be done between the strong rollers of the machine 
in one minute. 

The Howe Sewing Machine: 1852. About the 
year 1851 John Brooks Nichols, a Lynn shoemaker, 
adapted the Howe sewing machine to sew the 
uppers of shoes. John Wooldredge, also of Lynn, 
was the first to use the machine, in 1852. This 
adaptation really introduced the era of machine 
shoemaking, doing away with the slow process of 
hand sewing. The process had been called "bind- 
ing," and the handsewers were called "binders." 
Much of this work had been done in the home, and 
the introduction of this machine made the industry 
more distinctly a factory industry, marking the first 
period of development. 

The McKay Sewing Machine: 1858. In 1858 
Lyman R. Blake, a shoemaker of South Abington, 
now the town of Whitman, Massachusetts, invented 
a machine which sewed the soles of shoes to the 
uppers. This was improved by Robert Mathies 
and manufactured by Gordon McKay, a capitalist 
and manufacturer. It became known as the McKay 
sewing machine. 

These machines were first used in the factory of 
William Porter and Sons of Lynn in 1861 or 1862, 
and were run by foot power. The McKay machine 
ushered in the second period of development in shoe 



Shoe Machinery 59 

machinery, and has done more than any other to 
modernize shoe manufacture. 

The Goodyear Welt Machine: 1862-1875. In 
1862 Auguste Destouy, a New York mechanic, 
invented a machine with a curved needle for sewing 
turn shoes. This was later improved by as many 
as eight different mechanical experts employed by 
Charles Goodyear. 

The* machine was afterwards adapted to the 
sewing of the welt in the bottom of the shoe, with 
patents in 1871 and 1875, and became the famous 
Goodyear welt machine. This marks the third 
great period of development in shoe machinery. 

McKay and Goodyear were not themselves 
originators; they adapted and promoted the in- 
ventions of shoe worker and mechanic. Other 
inventions no doubt lacked such promoters and were 
lost to the industry. 

Edge-Trimming and Heel-Trimming Machines: 
1877. Edge-trimming and heel-trimming machines 
were introduced about the year 1877, and soon 
played a very important part in shoe manufacture. 
Previous to the introduction of these machines hand 
trimmers, or "whittlers," as they were called, re- 
ceived very high wages, sometimes double those of 
lasters who were also highly paid. Considerable 
opposition was offered to the trimming machines, 
but their speed, uniformity of work, and saving to 
the manufacturer made their adoption and uni- 
versal usefunevitable. 



60 The Shoe Industry 

The Lasting Machine: 1883. Though several 
attempts had been made to invent and operate last- 
ing machines, yet long after it was possible and 
profitable to sew shoes by machinery, it was still 
necessary to last them by hand. Shoe operatives 
in all lines opposed the introduction of machinery, 
feeling that it would reduce their numbers, shorten 
the period of employment each year, and make them 
more dependent upon the manufacturer. 

Foremost in this opposition to machinery were the 
hand lasters. They were strongly organized, and se- 
cured a very high wage, ranging from twenty to thirty 
dollars a week or more at a time when earnings on 
most processes were low as compared with present day 
wages in the shoe factory. The lasters boasted that 
their trade could never be taken away from them. 

Jan Ernest Matzeliger, a young man destined to 
accomplish what seemed impossible, came to Lynn 
from Dutch Guiana. He was the son of an engineer 
and himself an expert machinist. In a Lynn shoe 
factory he learned to operate a McKay machine and 
heard the boast of the hand lasters. 

Matzeliger began to work secretly on a model 
for a lasting machine. The first model was a failure, 
as was also a second. A third, however, was so 
satisfactory that money was advanced to the in- 
ventor for a fourth, in 1883. Matzeliger died while 
working upon this, but it was completed by other 
men, and became the foundation , of the modern 
consolidated lasting machine. 



Shoe Machinery 61 

The old lasters said that this machine sung to them 
as it worked, "I've got your job! I've got your job!" 

Some of the motions of the machine are like those 
of the hand and fingers, drawing the parts of the 
leather into place and fastening them by tacks. 
The hand worker lasted perhaps fifty pairs of shoes 
a day; the machine operator lasts from 300 to 700 
pairs in a day of ten hours. 

The Pulling-Over Machine. This improvement 
was introduced early in the present century. The 
pulling-over machine prepares the shoe for the 
lasting machine. It centers the upper upon the 
last, draws the sides and toe into place with pincers 
which work like fingers, and temporarily fastens 
these parts with tacks for lasting. "It is the acme 
of shoe machinery intricacy and accuracy, and 
years of study, and over $1,000,000 were spent in its 
development."* 

While his amount seems large it probably means 
a saving to the shoe manufacturers of the United 
States of four times the amount each year. 

Joseph L. Joyce. Joseph L. Joyce was a shoe 
manufacturer of New Haven, Conn., and a friend 
of Goodyear and McKay. From 1860 to 1890 he 
obtained many patents which greatly improved shoe 
machinery and the art of manufacturing. 

Power in Shoe Manufacture. Hand and foot 
power were first used for shoe making. In 1855 
William F. Trowbridge, at Feltonville, Mass., now 



♦From A Primer of Boots and Shoes. The United Shoe Machinery Company. 



62 The Shoe Industry 

a part of Marlboro, first applied horse power to shoe 
manufacture. Soon after this steam or waterpower 
was in use in all factories. In 1890 the electric 
motor was introduced, and has gradually taken the 
place of the steam engine. 

The Development of the Shoe Shank. As an 
indication of the development of a minor part of a 
shoe and of the simple machinery necessary for its 
manufacture, and as an example of a subsidiary 
industry, the main facts in the growth of the shank 
industry are here presented. 

Primarily the shank is that part of the sole between 
the heel and the ball of a shoe. In shoemaking the 
shank is a reinforcement placed between the outer 
and inner soles of a shoe in that part extending from 
the heel to the ball of the foot. Its purpose is to 
give shape or style and elasticity to the shoe. 

Fifty years ago the hand shoemaker used hard 
scraps of leather for shoe shanks, trimmed to the 
desired shape. Thin pieces of wood, molded to 
shape on primitive machines, soon came into use, 
and later strips of leather board. From 1877 to 
1885 a single firm in this country had a monopoly 
of molded shanks. About 1885 numerous patents 
were granted on shanks and on machinery for pro- 
ducing them. One form was a strip of flexible 
steel with leatherboard cover or casing. All the 
kinds of shanks described are in use at the present 
time, according to the kind and grade of shoes to be 
manufactured. There is, however, a constant ten- 



Shoe Machinery 63 

dency to use shanks of the better quality, for shoes 
sell better and keep their shape better with the more 
durable shank reinforcement. 

The use of prepared shanks is universal, and the 
world's supply is produced mainly in this country. 

There are machines large and small, simple and 
complicated, for making the various lesser parts of 
a shoe and its accessories, such as heels, counters, 
tips, eyelets, buckles, nails, thread, laces, polishing 
brushes, and so on, as well as machines for manu- 
facturing the various items of factory equipment. 

Operating a Complicated Machine. In some 
factories it is necessary, and in all factories advisable, 
that the operator of a modern, complicated shoe 
machine should understand its parts thoroughly, 
and be able to make the adjustments and simple 
repairs that may be needed at any time. The 
worker who has mechanical ability may learn to 
adjust and repair his machine by actual experience 
in running it. 

The mechanically expert operative is able to keep 
the machine running to its full capacity and to 
lengthen its period of efficient wear. He is thus 
worth more to the factory, and has increased earning 
power under the prevailing method of piece work. 

The Leasing System. The leasing system of 
shoe machinery was introduced in 1861 by Gordon 
McKay, when it was found difficult to sell to manu- 
facturers the Blake machine for sewing uppers and 
soles together. Such machines were costly and the 



64 The Shoe Industry 

capital of most shoe manufacturers was small at 
that time. The leasing system, on a royalty basis, 
enabled the manufacturers to have the advantage 
both of the machine and of unreduced capital for 
manufacture. 

The Care of Machinery. Owing to the unusual 
conditions just described in the shoe industry and 
through the leasing of machinery, there was early 
developed by the machine manufacturing company 
a force of men who were trained in the care of ma- 
chinery, and located at convenient centers, so as to 
go wherever machinery trouble existed. With the 
evolution of the shoe machinery business, and the 
various machines used in the bottoming of shoes 
under centralized control, relatively few factories 
maintain a force of special mechanics, and these are 
generally for the purpose of millwrighting and con- 
struction. At the present time a large force of ex- 
pert "roadmen," as they are called, is located in 
all the large shoe manufacturing centers, and in 
these agencies or branch offices from which they 
travel there is constantly maintained an immediately 
available supply of the many machine parts which 
are liable to wear or breakage. These parts are all 
numbered and catalogued, so that as soon as a part 
breaks or a machine goes out of adjustment, a 
telephone message brings to the factory the re- 
quired machine part. This service has been expanded 
to cover the instruction of operators upon the ma- 
chines when set up in the factory. 



Shoe Machinery 65 

The Standardization of Machinery. Because of 
standardization of machinery and processes and 
through co-operation between the manufacturer of 
shoe machinery and the shoe manufacturer, the 
growth of the industry during the last twenty years 
has surpassed all former periods. Today, manufac- 
turers, large and small, can secure machinery by 
leasing it, and nearly all factories are conducted 
entirely on this basis. 

This fact will make our study of the industry 
easier. We shall be studying operations on standard 
machines, used quite generally in this country and 
in many factories in other countries. We must 
remember, however, that improvements are con- 
stantly being made, that a process may be entirely 
changed on any day, and that the most skillful 
operatives of machines are in constant demand 
throughout the country. 




67 



Chapter III 
LAST-MAKING 



(69) 



CHAPTER III 
Last-Making 

Definition. The last is the wooden form which 
determines the size and shape of the shoe. Last- 
making is not a part of shoemaking, but is a necessary 
preliminary process or set of processes, as is also 
pattern-making. The last-maker is a wood worker. 
In early times the hand shoemaker fashioned his 
own last, a single form for both right and left feet, 
with rough proportions. Only within about thirty 
years have separate forms been used for right and 
left lasts. With advance in methods of shoemaking 
last-making has become a definite separate industry, 
and last factories have been established in most of 
the great shoe centers of the country. The last 
item in the cost of shoe manufacture varies greatly, 
according to changes in the style of foot wear. 

The Shaping of the Last. The last is modeled 
from the human foot. The shape of the last is de- 
termined by careful measurements of the foot 
modified by the use or kind of wear expected, by the 
prevailing demands of style, the peculiar processes 
of manufacture, and the special materials used. 
The last must have a "mean" form, adaptable to the 
varying shapes of the foot upon which the shoe is to 

*5 (71) 



72 The Shoe Industry 

be worn. In the case of shoes meant for special pur- 
poses, such as walking or dancing, special forms are 
used. There are, also, sectional and national 
differences of form; for instance, the prevailing 
English styles are somewhat broader and flatter 
than the American; while in American lasts the 
waist line, or measure over the instep, is less than 
in English styles, giving a closer fit in that part of 
the shoe and preventing the foot from sliding forward 
in it. 

Last Material. Lasts are made of wood or iron. 
Iron, however, is used less and less in this country 
except in repair shops. It is still used extensively in 
England. The wooden last has a plate of iron upon 
the heel, as a base for nailing on the heel of the shoe, 
and lasts used in making the McKay shoe, whose 
entire sole is nailed on, have a plate of iron over 
the bottom of the last. In England the wood used 
for lasts is mostly beech, whose close and strong 
fibre allows a smooth, firm surface, however the 
grain may be cut. In this country the wood gen- 
erally used is maple, which cuts easily and presents 
a smooth, hard surface when kiln-dried, as all woods 
must be for last-making. The hollow forms used 
by traveling salesmen, in the store window for dis- 
play, and in the home for keeping shoes in shape 
when not being worn, are made of light bass wood. 

Hand Last-making. It is interesting to review 
the processes used in earlier hand last-making, as 
they show not only the older features of a skilled 



Last-Making 73 

trade but also the work that is still necessary in a 
modern industry. The tree trunks brought from 
the forests were sawed into suitable lengths for 
lasts. The lengths were "blocked" or split into 
triangular pieces large enough to afford each a last 
when cut down. The pieces were then cut down 
with the bench knife into shapes approaching that 
of the finished last, and were cut to the desired length. 
The roughly formed last was then rasped and 
scraped until all surplus wood was removed. Holes 
were drilled or bored for the insertion of hooks to 
draw the last from the completed shoe. The last 
was finished by sandpapering and rubbing down. 

Modern Last-Making. Because of the increase 
in the numbers of shoes manufactured and the 
multiplication of styles, it long ago became necessary 
to produce lasts faster than could be done by hand. 
Early in the last century, about the year 1820, we 
find the last-making machine, or last-lathe, long 
antedating the use of shoe machinery. The last- 
lathe is a modification of the wood-turning lathe. 
Instead of producing symmetrical forms the lathe 
is made to yield forms of irregular shape, like that of 
the human foot. The lathe has been but little 
changed in later years. Its chief features are what 
are known as the model end and the cutter end. 

The blocks from which the lasts are to be turned 
are brought from the forests in the rough, sometimes 
cut by hand and sometimes by a lathe into shape 
approaching that necessary for the last. Before 



74 The Shoe Industry 

being utilized they are kiln-dried for six or seven 
weeks, to prevent the finished last from shrinking. 

The Model Last. The making of the model from 
which other lasts are to be made is the most difficult 
process connected with the industry. An old last 
is sometimes built over by adding thicknesses of 
leather in places, or a paste of glue and sawdust, and 
by cutting down the wood in other places to produce 
the measurements necessary for a desired style. 
Sometimes the model is entirely new, made by hand 
to meet the required measurements. A standard 
size is used, a number seven or eight in men's shoes 
and a four in women's shoes. From these, by 
adjustments of the lathe, sizes and widths are graded 
up and down, usually five sizes each way. Three 
models are generally made use of for children's 
lasts. 

The Use of the Last-Lathe. The standard 
model last is clamped in the model end of the lathe, 
and the rough block of kiln-dried wood from which 
the last is to be turned is set in the cutter end of 
the machine. When the machine is put in motion 
the model swings against a model wheel, at the same 
time that the last block is forced solidly against 
the cutter wheel. As both the model and the block 
revolve, the model wheel guides and regulates the 
knife which cuts the block, from toe to heel, into an 
exact duplicate of the model, except for projections 
at either end which are cut down on the heeler or 
shaving machine. The last is then placed upon a 



Last-Making 75 

polishing wheel for the processes of finishing. The 
bottoms are tested by a sole pattern of the desired 
size, and the size and width are stamped on them. 
Metal heels or entire metal soles are also attached. 
The lathe machine works so accurately that the 
slightest imperfection or variation in the model is 
reproduced in the finished last. A machine turns 
out about fifteen pairs of lasts an hour. 

Devices for Reducing Last in Use. There are 
various methods of making a part of the last remov- 
able or reducing its length, so that it may be more 
easily drawn from the finished shoe or inserted in a 
shoe. The earlier and a still common method is 
to saw out a portion of the instep of the last, leaving 
what is called the block last. Formerly by having 
variously shaped substitutes for the part sawed out 
modifications of styles were effected. Another 
form is the Arnold hinged last, the last being cut 
entirely in two, a v-shaped portion cut out of the 
instep, and the two parts joined by a hinge, so that 
the heel swings up freely. Some firms make a busi- 
ness of remodeling or building over lasts for shoe 
manufacturers to meet changes in style. And old 
lasts are sometimes steamed to restore their shape 
and fulness. 

The Storage of Lasts. The lasts when made, or 
when returned from factory use, are usually stored 
in bins, by styles and sizes, in a room convenient 
to the lasting or making room. They are also some- 
times stained different colors to indicate different 



76 The Shoe Industry 

styles or different widths of the same style. When 
required for use they are taken from the bins, in 
sets according to lots of shoes to be made, placed 
upon the shoe racks, and started on their way through 
the factory. 

One person, very frequently a boy, usually has 
charge of the storage room. He must be thoroughly 
familiar with the lasts in his care, and able to select 
quickly such as may be called for each day. 

To become a last maker one must have mechanical 
ability to learn any or all of the few processes in- 
volved. The work is interesting but requires the 
constant attention of the operator, as the slightest 
error or inaccuracy would result in an imperfect last. 
The operator has a fairly constant occupation, as 
the last factory runs more steadily through the year 
than does the shoe factory, and experience and skill 
are an asset to the last worker. His earnings run 
higher than those of the average shoe worker. 



Chapter IV 
PATTERN-MAKING 



07) 



CHAPTER IV 

Pattern-Making 

Definition. Patterns are the forms or shapes 
used in cutting the various parts of the upper portion 
of the shoe. While a sole pattern is sometimes 
used, the sole is generally blocked or died out in the 
rough, being trimmed to shape in a later process. 
Pattern-making had advanced from a very rude 
beginning to processes requiring the highest skill 
and adaptation to modern styles. In early days 
patterns were made of paper. Sometimes tissue 
paper was wet and placed upon the last, marked in 
lines where the joints of the upper should be made, 
and cut in these lines when dried and removed 
from the last. There was no allowance for grad- 
ing in sizes, and separate lasts were used for the 
various sizes. 

The Pattern Designer. In a modern shoe factory 
there is a person called the designer, who makes a 
constant study of styles. He receives the suggestions 
of the traveling salesmen, who are always on the 
watch for novelties in style and fashion. He seeks 
information from every source as to the permanency 
of old styles, the popularity of the new, and of changes 
in dress and custom that are likely to demand still 

(79) 



80 The Shoe Industry 

other styles in foot wear. The designer is in close 
touch with salesmen, manufacturers and depart- 
ment heads in his own factory. He sometimes acts 
as superintendent of the pattern-making depart- 
ment. Upon his skill and judgment depend in 
large measure the volume and permanency of trade 
secured by his company. He should have high 
artistic skill and knowledge of shoemaking. The 
ordinary designer must be familiar with about 
25,000 different designs. 

Frequently after a study of styles, the designer, 
the sales manager, and the factory manager confer 
on the most economical styles to be made. 

There have already been established a few factories 
for the designing and making of shoe patterns, to 
sell to the manufacturer. 

The Pattern Model. In making a model for 
patterns the last is taken as a basis. With due con- 
sideration of the shape and style of the shoe, the 
material to be used, and the use to which the shoe 
is to be put, the pattern is made to conform to the 
proportions of the last. The last-maker and the 
pattern-maker work together to a definite end of 
utility and style. 

Sample patterns are submitted to the manufac- 
turer for approval, after which the pattern-maker 
draws plans for his model. The sets of model 
patterns are cut in sheet iron by hand. Patterns are 
reproduced from them in sheet iron or in card- 
board by the pattern machine. The standard size 



Pattern-Making 81 

of the model is seven in men's shoes, and four in 
women's, and by gradations above and below these 
numbers, as in last-making, other sizes are obtained. 

From the model the pattern-maker produces 
such quantities in each size as may be desired in a 
factory. 

The Trial Shoe. Sometimes a shoe is made as a 
trial or sample of a new style. This is taken out by 
the salesman and shown to the trade. If sufficient 
orders are placed on this particular shoe, patterns 
are made and the shoe is manufactured in quantities. 

The Number of Patterns to a Shoe. The number 
of patterns necessary for the ordinary shoe varies 
according to the kind or style of shoe. The button 
boot, for example, has the following parts, each re- 
quiring a separate pattern: Two quarters, two 
linings, button-piece, button-piece lining, top stay, 
vamp, foxing, tip, back-stay, vamp-lining, button- 
stay, backer for button holes, and marker for button 
holes. Other kinds of shoes have a larger or smaller 
number of parts. 

Pattern Material. Sheet iron has long been used 
for patterns, and is still largely used for those of lin- 
ings and the cloth parts of shoes. "Junk-board" or 
heavy card-board, made by grinding up old news- 
papers, is gradually taking the place of sheet iron, 
some factories using it altogether. Zinc, also, is used. 
Wooden patterns are sometimes used for the soles 
of shoes, by which the soles are shaped upon a sole- 
rounding machine. 



82 The Shoe Industry 

Making Patterns. The iron model is clamped 
to the bed of the grading or pattern-making ma- 
chine. This machine operates by a system of 
levers, so that the model is reproduced in junk- 
board or iron, just as in last-making the last is de- 
termined by the model. By lengthening or shorten- 
ing the levers sizes above and below the model are 
produced. Junk-board patterns are then bound 
with strips of metal which are smoothed at 
the corners and soldered at the joints. The 
patterns are then stamped with size numbers, 
widths, and styles. Sometimes various colors 
of the junk-board are used to indicate different 
widths. 

The Standardization of Lasts and Patterns. 
There has been considerable effort in recent years 
to standardize patterns for those parts of the shoe 
which change least in shape from season to season. 
This is accomplished largely, of course, through 
permanent forms in corresponding parts of the last, 
especially the parts back of the ball of the foot. A 
reduction in the number of patterns used by the 
cutter or of the dies required for a full run of 
sizes, when dies are used, is a great gain in shoe 
manufacture. 

The constant increase in the cost of shoe material 
makes it all the more necessary to reduce cost in 
some other line. This reduction can be accom- 
plished in part by reducing varieties in form, or by 
a standardization of patterns. 



Pattern-Making 83 

The Storage of Patterns. The patterns when 
made in quantities are stored in racks or pigeon 
holes, according to sizes and kinds, in a pattern 
room which is convenient to the cutting room of the 
shoe factory. 

Positions in the Pattern- Making Department. 
The positions in this department are: the Designer, 
or superintendent of pattern-making; an assistant 
designer, in very large establishments; the model 
grader, who does hand work; the power grader, 
who runs the pattern-making machine; the truer- 
up, who levels the metal pattern; the binder, who 
puts the steel border on the card board pattern; 
the finisher, who solders and smooths the binding; 
and the stamper, who places the necessary numbers 
upon the pattern. 

The pattern boys have charge of the patterns in 
storage, taking them to the cutting room and bring- 
ing them back and placing them in their proper spaces 
after use. 

The Pattern Maker. The pattern maker may be 
a person skilled in some of the operations of shoe- 
making. He should at least be familiar with its 
general processes, and should have good mechanical 
ability. The occupation, like that of the last- 
maker, is less crowded than most of the divisions 
of the work in the shoe factory. 

The Price of Patterns. "It is figured in a gen- 
eral way that a manufacturer of women's shoes 
should spend at least one-half of one per cent. 



84 The Shoe Industry 

of the gross volume of his business for patterns. 
That is, if he is doing a business of $1,000,000 
annually, he should spend at least $5,000 for 
new patterns. It is quite likely that some 
manufacturers are spending a larger percentage 
than this. In the last few seasons, a number 
of manufacturers have had to increase their 
expenditures for patterns, because patterns 
have become much more important in the mak- 
ing of shoe styles than they ever were before. 
While complaints are common that too much 
money is spent for patterns, yet the pattern 
bills are among the smallest that a manufac- 
turer has to pay. They are nowhere nearly 
as expensive as lasts, nor as costly as the 
trimmings that are used to put style into 
shoes. 

"Sometimes it pays a manufacturer to buy 
a new set of patterns just for the purpose of 
getting out a new style in footwear. For in- 
stance, supposing a manufacturer buys a new 
set of patterns, at twenty dollars, and livens up 
his line during the dull spell of between seasons, 
and gets orders for one hundred cases of shoes 
made according to the new patterns. His profit 
is five cents a pair, and his total profit is $180. 
Surely it is worth while to spend twenty dollars 
to make $180. Of course, the real cost of the 
patterns depends upon the number of times 
they are used. They may be thrown aside at 
the end of the month to make way for new 
patterns. In that case their cost will figure 
high. But if they are used through a season, 
and are carried over to the next season, then their 
real cost figures down pretty low. But the main 



Pattern-Making 85 

point, in dealing with the pattern department, 
is not to consider chiefly what they cost, but 
chiefly what they bring in the way of new and 
additional orders."* 



'American Shoemaking. Boston, March 6, 1915. 



Chapter V 
LEATHER 



(87) *6 



CHAPTER V 
Leather 

Its Nature. Leather is the skin of an animal, 
tanned or otherwise preserved, shrunk, and tough- 
ened. The skins of beast, bird, fish, or reptile may 
be made into leather. Leather in some form has 
been used from time immemorial for clothing, foot- 
wear, harness material, and other articles for human 
use. 

Tanning. Tanning consists in converting animal 
skins or hides into leather by the use of astringent 
acids. In earlier times these acids were derived 
from vegetable products, such as the bark of the 
hemlock tree, oak tree, willow, and chestnut. The 
bark was finely ground and steeped in water, form- 
ing a strong solution or liquor in which the skins 
were placed in vats, after the removal of hair and 
surplus flesh. The action of the acid toughens the 
skin, condenses it and hardens the albuminous 
matter in it, thus preserving it from decay. The 
most common kinds of bark used have been the 
hemlock and the oak. Some months are required 
in the process, and the longer the time taken usually 
the better is the quality of the leather produced. In 
later years mineral substances, of which chrome 

(89) 



90 The Shoe Industry 

alum is a characteristic example, have come into 
quite general use for tanning. This mode is called 
chrome tanning. The acid processes require a short 
time for tanning in comparison with the bark pro- 
cesses, but demand careful attention to prevent 
injury to the leather. They afford various effects 
in the coloring of leather. Such leathers are usually 
finished dry or with only a light application of oil. 
The bark-tanned leathers go through various lengthy 
oiling processes, according to thickness and the 
purposes for which the leathers are designed. 

Chrome tanning has transformed the shoe and 
leather industries. 

American Leather Manufacturing. The American 
leather industry has grown from small beginnings 
along with shoe manufacturing. The first leather 
used was imported from England. The colonists 
also used Indian tanned deer skins. 

The first tanner to settle in this country was 
Francis Ingalls of Lincolnshire, England, who came 
to Lynn in 1629. Philemon Dickerson, an English 
tanner, came to Salem in 1637. The tanning of 
leather was carried on at the same time probably 
in New York, Pennsylvania, and the Southern 
Colonies. In 1800 William Rose, another English 
tanner, was induced to come to Lynn by Ebenezer 
Breed, who had done so much to promote American 
shoe manufacture by means of the protective tariff 
on shoes. Rose became "the father of the American 
morocco manufacturing industry." 



Leather 91 

Shortly before the War of the Rebellion, machinery 
was introduced into the tanning industry, and today 
machinery is used in the place of hand labor in all 
its branches. Machinery and the chrome process 
have given American tanners leadership in the 
leather producing industry. 

, American tanneries treat annually about 20,000,- 
000 hides or heavy varieties of leather, and about 
100,000,000 skins or lighter varieties. They import 
annually more than $50,000,000 worth of untanned 
skins from Europe, Africa, India, China, Siberia, 
Australia, and South American countries. American 
tanners produce about $300,000,000 worth of 
leather. Of this the greater part is used in the 
manufacture of boots and shoes. A much smaller 
part is used for upholstering, automobiles and furni- 
ture, harnesses, bookbinding, machinery belting, 
trunks and bags, card cases, pocketbooks, gloves, 
and novelties. 

The Increasing Shortage of Leather. In recent 
years the leather-producing animals the world over 
have been either actually decreasing in numbers, 
as in the great West of this country, or have not 
increased as rapidly as has the demand for leather. 
The population of the various countries of the 
world increases steadily and the wearing of shoes 
becomes more widely a custom in the less civilized 
countries, as in the case of the countries concerned 
in the Spanish War, and new uses are steadily found 
for leather. Such a generally increasing demand 



92 The Shoe Industry 

tends to raise the price of leather and of leather 
products. Any lessening of freedom in the com- 
merce of the world, as in the case of the European 
war, tends also to bring about higher prices in 
leather products as in other imported articles. 

Leather Substitutes. As a result of the growing 
shortage of leather, the use of leather substitutes 
is becoming more and more common in the shoe 
industry. First and chief among substitutes for 
upper leather are the fabrics, white canvas being 
most used. The fabric top does not stretch, affords 
a good-looking shoe, and would find an increased 
demand even if there were no shortage of leather. It 
has become a fashion in some localities to have the 
top of the woman's shoe match the dress. This 
can be done easily by the use of fabrics, as well as 
by fancy leathers. Among substitutes for sole 
leather, leatherboard has been widely used. This 
consists of fibers of hard leather, waste paper, rags 
and wood pulp, rolled into hard sheets by machin- 
ery. It is cut and handled in the same way as 
sole leather, and is used in particular in making the 
bottoms of the cheaper grades of shoes. Wooden 
heels cut in block are widely used in the making of 
slippers and the lighter kinds of shoes. Waterproof 
felt is also coming into use more and more for the 
sole of the shoe. Celluloid and even oilcloth prod- 
ucts are sometimes used for toe boxes. It has long 
been the custom in shoe manufacture to make 
heels of pieced leather. One of the latest substi- 



Leather 93 

tutes is "hideite leather." This is a leather fiber 
product consisting of soft leather skivings or 
remnants pressed into sheets. Rubber is used 
more and more extensively for the bottoms of 
shoes, and is in increasing demand on the part of 
the public. 

The Tannery Divisions of Hides and Skins. 
According to the size, the general divisions made 
in the tanneries are three, as follows: 

First, "hides." This is the term used for skins 
of full-grown or large animals, such as cows, oxen, 
horses, the buffalo and the walrus. These animals 
yield thick, heavy leather for shoe soles, machinery 
belting, or other uses demanding strength and 
durability. An untanned upper leather hide usually 
weighs from twenty-five to sixty pounds; a sole 
leather hide, from forty to seventy pounds; hides 
weighing from seventy or seventy-five pounds up 
are used for the heavier kinds of belting. 

Second, "kips," skins of the smaller beeves, 
weighing from fifteen to twenty-five pounds. 

Third, "skins" of such small animals as calves, 
sheep, goats, and dogs. 

The skins of other animals are used for leather. 
The kangaroo, for instance, provides one of the 
best leathers used in shoemaking. Upper leather 
is made mainly from cow hides, kips, and large 
calfskins. 

Because of the greater demand for thin leathers, 
thick hides are often split into thin layers by ma- 



94 The Shoe Industry 

chinery. This is done by passing the hide through 
a set of rollers between which is a keen knife, which 
divides the parts into any desired thickness. The 
outer parts of the leather, on the hair side, are the 
most valued, and are called "grain" leather. The 
inner parts are made into a variety of different 
kinds of leather by special treatment. Various 
kinds of finishes are given, such as seal grain, glove 
grain, oil grain, buff, satin, russet, or plain. 

A Side of Leather. The larger skins are generally 
cut along the back into two halves or sides. The usual 
names for the parts of each side are, head, shoulder, 
bend, and belly. The "bend" is the best portion 
of the back, behind the shoulders, the firmest leather 
of the entire skin. This part is devoted to the best 
uses and the higher grades of shoes, other parts to 
lower grades. 

Divisions of Leather in Shoe Manufacture. In 
shoe manufacture leather is divided into two 
general classes, upper leather, and sole leather. The 
upper leather includes the outer parts of the shoe 
above the sole and leather when used for linings. 
Sole leather includes that used for the outer and 
inner soles, heels, counters, and rands. Upper leather 
is usually measured by the square foot; sole leather, 
by the pound. 

The Varieties of Upper Leather. There are five 
chief kinds of upper leather, as follows : Kid or goat, 
calfskin, side leather, sheepskin, and coltskin or 
horsehide. There are also other kinds, such as 



96 The Shoe Industry 

kangaroo, chamois, buckskin, pigskin, and a few 
special and fancy leathers. 

Kid. Kid is the name for leather made from the 
skins of full-grown goats, coming mainly from the 
mountains of India, Europe, and South America. 
There are over sixty recognized varieties of goat- 
skins. According to its tanning and finishing, kid 
is classed as glazed, mat, royal, cadet, patent, 
suede, bronze, pebbled or morocco, etc. 

"Glazed kid," from the French "glace kid," is 
polished after tanning, and its glossy surface is ob- 
tained by burnishing on the grain side. It is pro- 
duced in various colors. Glazed kid is used for the 
uppers of shoes. 

"Mat kid" has a dull, soft, black finish, from 
treatment with beeswax or olive oil. 

"Patent" leather is produced by applying a coat 
of varnish to the finished surface of the skin. 

"Enamel" leather has a hard, glossy finish on the 
grain side, being boarded and varnished. 

"Suede" leather, a French term, means "Swedish" 
finished. It is finished on the flesh side with a dry, 
napped surface. It is produced in a great variety 
of colors and used extensively in making slippers, 
and to some extent in light shoes. 

"Bronze kid," or calfskin, is leather finished with 
a form of cochineal dye. This is a method long 
known and used especially for women's fancy shoes. 

"Vici kid" is a name first used by Robert Foederer 
of Philadelphia, about 1885, and in common use now 



Leather 97 

for chrome tanned kid dressed with a mixture of 
soap and oil. This term became a trade-mark, and 
refers generally to the better grades of kid leather. 

Other kinds of kid are in less general use. They 
are finished in particular ways, according to effects 
desired. "Kangaroo kid," for instance, is kid fin- 
ished in imitation of the genuine kangaroo. 

"Chamois" is oil-tanned leather made from the 
skins of chamois and other small animals. It is a 
very pliable and washable leather when genuine. 

Calfskin. Calfskin is the leather used most 
extensively in shoemaking. It is the lightest, most 
pliable, serviceable, and satisfactory of all the 
skins of the neat animals. Its main sources are 
the farms of the United States, Canada, South 
America, and European countries. It is finished in 
many forms, of which it is necessary to mention 
only a few, as box, gun metal, patent, wax, willow, 
boarded, velvet, ooze, and Russia. Kips, the 
middle weight skins already spoken of, and calfskins 
overlap in qualities and uses. The calfskin is never 
split, but is generally shaved to a uniform thickness. 
The different names applied to calfskin, as in the 
case of kid, refer to particular kinds of treatment 
in tanning and finishing the leather, and the terms 
correspond in the main with those already given 
for kid. A few special terms for calfskin are the 
following : 

"Box calf" is a proprietary name. It is a chrome 
tanned calfskin "boarded," that is, treated by 



98 The Shoe Industry 

rubbing with a board to raise the grain, giving a 
peculiar rough surface. Box calf is a waterproof 
leather of black or tan color, and is regarded as 
the best material for rough out-of-door wear. 

"Buckskin" is primarily deer skin tanned in oil. 
In recent usage it means any soft leather, especially 
cowhide, finished in a white, grayish, or yellowish 
color. 

"Gun metal" is chrome tanned leather, either 
calf, veal, or side, with gun metal black finish, or 
with a bright finish. Gun metal leather is used 
very extensively in shoe manufacture. 

"Wax calf" is finished on the flesh side with a 
waxlike surface. French calf, also, is finished on 
the flesh side. 

"Willow calf" is a fine, soft, colored, chrome 
tanned skin. 

"Ooze" is a proprietary term applied to the velvet 
of soft finish skin. 

"Russia" is a colored calfskin finished and per- 
fumed with birch oil, which gives it a characteristic 
appearance and odor. 

Side leather. Side leather is cow hide, either bark 
or chrome tanned, with the skin cut down the back 
into two halves. The sides are split to reduce to 
thickness appropriate for shoe tops and finished in 
various forms with dry, oiled, smooth, or boarded 
surfaces, in imitation of the various finishes of calf- 
skin. It is used largely in the cheaper grades of 
men's and boys' shoes. 



Leather 99 

Sheepskin. Sheepskin is used chiefly for shoe 
linings and outer parts where the wear is light. 

Coltskin. Coltskin and the better part of the 
horsehide have firmness of texture and suscepti- 
bility to high polish. They are used in the form of 
patent leather and in dull finish, mainly for men's 
high-grade shoes. 

Sole Leather. Sole leather includes the heavier 
and thicker kinds of leather from the skins of 
mature, neat animals, such as are suitable for use 
in the bottoms and heels of shoes. It is tanned and 
finished so as to produce a firm, solid texture rather 
than great pliability. 

Sole leather is tanned from 

Green hides generally ranging between forty and 
seventy pounds, with an average of about fifty-five 
pounds. 

Dry hides generally ranging between sixteen and 
thirty pounds, with an average of about twenty to 
twenty- two pounds. 

Previous to ten years ago sole leather hides were 
tanned in liquors extracted from hemlock or oak 
bark, or a combination of the two, and the tanned 
leather received its name according to the tanning 
material used; namely, oak leather was tanned in 
oak bark liquors; hemlock in hemlock bark and 
leather tanned in the combination of the two was 
called union. As the supply of bark diminished in 
the various sections where tanneries were located 
tanners were obliged to substitute other tanning 



100 The Shoe Industry 

materials, such as barks, nuts, and extract made 
from various foreign and domestic woods, so today 
leather is tanned in the combination of several 
materials and the finished product is designated 
according to the color of the leather which it re- 
sembles. Leather having a light color, resembling 
the color of old oak is called oak. That which has 
a more reddish shade is called union and that which 
has a very dark red shade is called hemlock. Oak 
leather is used largely in high grade men's and 
women's shoes and for the finding trade. A large 
percentage of the union leather is bought by con- 
cerns which make a business of cutting soles, and 
these are sold to be used in the manufacture of 
women's shoes. Hemlock is used in the manufacture 
of medium and lower priced men's shoes. There is 
also a very large export business in this class of 
leather. 

A very small percentage of sole leather hides is 
now being tanned by a chrome process, the basis 
of this tannage being bichromate of soda. It is 
practically the same process as that used in tanning 
chrome upper leather. Very heavy hides are gen- 
erally used for leather tanned in this process because 
of the fact that the tannage does not swell the hides 
as does the vegetable process and it is necessary to 
get a hide averaging from eighty to ninety pounds 
in order to obtain the required thickness. This 
process produces a piece of leather which has a pearl 
gray color in its natural state and when water- 



Leather 101 

proofed is of a dark greenish shade. The leather is 
used in the natural state for soles on cheap outing 
shoes and waterproofed for heavy storm shoes. 

Oak tanned leather is the best kind of sole leather, 
as is indicated always by its market price. It has 
a light, creamy tan color, and is both firm and 
flexible. Hemlock tanned is of a lower grade than 
oak or union tanned leather. Chrome tanned sole 
leather is dense, hard, and durable, but has hardly 
passed beyond its experimental stage. 

Hides, from which sole leather is made, vary 
according to climatic conditions in various quarters 
of the world. Animals living in warm climates have 
a thick and tough skin with thin hair; those living 
in cold climates have a thick coat of hair with 
light weight skin. 

The cost of sole leather makes a large item in the 
general costs of shoe manufacture, and leather 
substitutes are used chiefly for sole leather. 

Some other leather terms and varieties of leather 
not necessarily included in this chapter will be found 
in Chapter XIV on shoemaking terms. 

The Cut-Sole Industry. The great development 
of the shoe industry in recent years has produced 
not only dealers in all kinds of leather and shoe 
supplies, but special manufacturers of the various 
materials required by the shoe factory. As in the 
case of the automobile, shoe manufacture may be 
made almost a matter of assembling prepared 
parts. 



102 The Shoe Industry 

The industry connected with the preparing of 
sole-leather parts is especially extensive, including 
cut soles, insoles, counters, heels, top lifts, taps, 
box toes, and rands. All these parts are now pro- 
duced in highly specialized factories, and furnished 
to the shoe manufacturer at the lowest cost, in 
great numbers in uniform size and quality. Some 
of the largest manufacturing companies, however, 
have subsidiary factories in their plants for the 
production of such parts, but the smaller factories 
are compelled to buy them from the independent 
manufacturer. 

Most of the lines of industry connected with the 
cutting of sole leather center in the United States, 
and there are no factories at all outside this country 
for cut-soles, heels, top pieces, and rands. There 
are forty cut-sole factories in this country, which 
do an annual volume of business of $40,000,000, 
supplying the home and foreign markets. 



LEATHER, TANNED, CURRIED, AND FINISHED— VALUE 

OF PRODUCTS FOR LEADING STATES: 

1909 AND 1899 



MILLIONS OF OOLLARS 



PENNSYLVANIA 

WISCONSIN 

MASSACHUSETTS 

NEW JERSEY 

NEW YORK 

MICHIGAN 

ILLINOIS 

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DELAWARE 

OHIO 

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VIRGINIA 

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MARYLAND 

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MISSOURI 

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Chapter VI 

THE DEPARTMENTS OF SHOE 
MANUFACTURE 



(107) 



CHAPTER VI 

The Departments of Shoe Manufacture 

The Business Departments. The business side 
of modern shoemaking has definite and numerous 
divisions. There are the usual officers: President, 
vice-president, treasurer, superintendent or general 
manager, employment manager, welfare manager, 
office manager, and other heads of departments 
and divisions, with their many assistants. The 
functions and the duties connected with all these 
divisions are such as are found in the general busi- 
ness world, and are described in the volume upon 
Business Employments. From fifteen to twenty per 
cent., or nearly one-fifth of the persons connected 
with the shoe industry, are employed upon its busi- 
ness side. 

The accompanying chart, on page 111, gives a list 
of the usual business departments and shows their 
three-fold nature, — of executive control, maintenance 
of business, and maintenance of manufacture. The 
two divisions of employment and social service are 
in a sense independent of the three major divisions, 
or supplementary to them. The employment depart- 
ment deals with all questions of the hiring, training, 
and discharge of employees; the social service 

(109) 



110 The Shoe Industry 

department, with all questions of their general 
welfare. 

The Executive Officers. The executive officers 
are those who work out and control the general 
plans and policies of the company. They may or 
may not be stockholders. They are responsible 
to the stockholders for the success of the com- 
pany. 

The General Offices. The general offices are 
concerned in building up the business side of 
manufacture and reach out into the field of trade. 
These offices take charge of the orders received from 
shoe dealers, of correspondence, bookkeeping, and 
the credits and collections of the company. They 
have charge of purchasing and caring for materials 
used in manufacture, and of the large and important 
functions of advertising and of selling manufactured 
goods. 

The Factory Offices. The factory offices are those 
concerned closely with manufacture, touching the 
factory at every department. These offices are 
often separate from the others and placed as near 
the factory departments as possible. They take 
charge of tags made from the orders received by 
the order department and follow them through the 
factory. They provide a schedule of the time in 
which shoes shall be made or passed from room to 
room. They maintain supplies for all factory 
purposes, pay employees, and supervise the costs of 
manufacture. 



CHART OF THE BUSINESS DEPARTMENTS OF SHOE 
MANUFACTURE 



STOCKHOLDERS 



Employment 
Department 



EXECUTIVE OFFICERS 



DIRECTORS 



PRESIDENT 



VICE-PRESIDENT 



TREASURER 



SUPERINTENDENT 



Social Service 
Department 



Office Manager 











GENERAL OFFICES 




FACTORY OFFICES 


Order Department 


Advance Information Dep't 


Correspondence Department 


Tag Department 


Bookkeeping Department 


Dispatch Department 


Credit and Collection Dep't 


Supply Department 


Sales Department 


Upper Leather Office 


Purchasing Department 


Schedule Department 


Receiving Department 


Pay Roll Department 


Publicity Department 


Cost Department 


Mailing Department 







Messenger Service 



(111) 



112 The Shoe Industry 

Factory Service and Office Service. Factory 
service does not necessarily lead to office service. 
In general the two fields of employment are quite 
separate. Boys and young men, however, are 
sometimes taken into the business offices of a com- 
pany, usually as messengers, and given at the same 
time factory training, such as observation of processes 
and routine of manufacture. Less frequently the 
plan is followed of giving six months' training in an 
office and then the same period in the factory. The 
purpose in such double training is usually to prepare 
young men to act as assistants to superintendents 
or heads of departments. Sometimes, on the other 
hand, employees in factory departments who show 
clerical ability also are taken into the factory offices, 
where there is always need of a practical knowledge 
of the work of the factory. 

The Factory Departments. In the following chap- 
ters the present volume treats of actual shoemaking, 
or of factory departments and processes. There are 
six general divisions in the modern shoe factory. 
These are shown by the following chart upon factory 
departments. They are: the Upper Leather depart- 
ment, the stitching department, the sole leather 
department, the making department, the finishing 
department, and the treeing, packing, and shipping 
department. These are each minutely subdivided 
into factory rooms, sections, or departments, as will 
appear in the following pages. The last division, 
treeing, packing, and shipping, in a large factory, are 



Departments of Shoe Manufacture 113 

each separate departments, making eight in the major 
divisions rather than six. In large factories we find 
numerous additional departments of which the 
chief ones are shown in the second division of the 
diagram, or heel department, box toe department, 
box factory, and printing department. There may 
be sub-divisions, also, in this second group, accord- 
ing to the magnitude of manufacture. A large 
company, indeed, may produce all its materials in 
the endeavor to lower the cost of every item that 
enters into shoemaking. 

Other names are used for some of these divisions, 
usually according to locality; for instance, the 
stitching department is sometimes called the fitting 
department, the making department, the bottoming 
department, and the sole leather division is called 
the stock-fitting division. The word "room" is very 
generally used for "department" for the sake of 
brevity in speaking. 

The Modern Shoe Factory. The modern shoe 
factory, in which are found the many offices and the 
factory departments just enumerated, has become 
quite typical in general form. The width of the 
factory is a very important consideration. Build- 
ings are constructed with a width of about fifty 
feet, as single long buildings, or having wings of 
the same width, and less often in hollow squares, 
maintaining the same width throughout. This con- 
struction allows plenty of daylight along the middle 
of each room from the two sides. As good light 



CHART OF THE FACTORY DEPARTMENTS 



FACTORY DEPARTMENTS 



Upper Leather Department 



Stitching Department 



Sole Leather Department 



Making Department 



Finishing Department 



Treeing Department 11 



Packing Department 



Shipping Department 



ADDITIONAL DEPARTMENTS IN 
LARGE FACTORffiS 



Heel Department 



Box Toe Department 



Box Factory 



Printing 



•Treeing, Packing, and Shipping may be treated separately or as one department. 

(114) 



CHART OF FACTORY MANAGEMENT 



FACTORY MANAGER 



Superintendents 



Foremen and Forewomen 



Assistants 



Floorpeople 



Operatives throughout Departments 



Messengers 



(115) 



116 The Shoe Industry 

is necessary to accurate work, it is essential that 
rooms be constructed in this way. 

In length, factories vary from about two hundred 
feet up to several hundred feet. The most common 
form is the long, single building, with capacity for 
a few hundred or perhaps a thousand employees. 
Some factories have small wings or adjacent struc- 
tures. The plan followed by some very large manu- 
facturing companies of extensive wings or units 
affords great length of rooms with floor space all 
well lighted from two sides, sometimes up to a 
quarter or a half mile in length. Such plants employ 
four or five or more thousands of people, and turn 
out from ten to twenty thousand pairs of shoes 
daily. 

The Typical Factory. The typical factory has four 
floors for its six major departments. The sole leather 
department occupies the first or basement floor. 
The upper leather and stitching departments occupy 
the fourth or upper floor. The making department 
occupies the third floor. The finishing, packing, 
and shipping departments are upon the second floor. 
The business offices are usually divided between the 
second and third floors. The factory offices are 
usually placed as near their factory departments 
as possible. 

In the very large factories, or in the case of a 
plant consisting of several factories, there are usu- 
ally central administrative offices, while the factory 
offices are in the various buildings of the plant. 




117 



Department of Shoe Manufacture 119 

Some large factories now have as many as seven 
or eight floors. In such buildings the general plan 
already given is followed. The sole leather depart- 
ments are on the basement floor; the upper leather 
departments occupy the top floor. Shoes in process 
of making pass downward continually to the packing 
and shipping rooms on the first floor. Height is 
sought only when the length of the building is 
limited for providing needed floor space. Indeed, 
the long, low building or plan of separate buildings 
is preferable in many respects, giving less move- 
ment of manufacture up and down, less crowding 
of employees, better light and ventilation, and less 
intense jar and rumble of machinery, all tending 
to improve conditions of employment. 

On the other hand, from the standpoint of the 
manufacturer, the closest working arrangement of 
rooms consistent with free movement and safety, 
is the better, since it brings smaller overhead charges, 
less expensive administration and oversight, and a 
quicker passage of the shoe from its beginning to its 
completion. Location and available building space, 
however, are the usual factors that determine the 
departure of a factory plan from the general and 
natural four-floor division. 

The most modern shoe factories are built of steel 
and concrete, with the outer walls largely given up 
to window space, as may be seen in the accom- 
panying illustration. 



Chapter VII 
METHODS IN SHOE MANUFACTURE 



(121) *8 



CHAPTER VII 

Methods in Shoe Manufacture 

The Chief Methods. The chief methods in manu- 
facturing shoes, developed mostly with the intro- 
duction of machinery, are as follows: 

The Goodyear Welt, 

The McKay, 

The Turned, 

The Standard Screw, 

The Pegged, 

The Nailed. 

The distinctions indicated in these terms arise 
from the methods of attaching the sole of the shoe 
to the upper, which has always been the most 
important problem of the shoemaker. Prior to the 
introduction of shoe machinery, all sewing upon 
shoes, the attaching of the bottom to the upper as 
well as sewing together the parts of the upper, was 
done by hand. In the beginning of the factory 
industry people often took parts from the factory 
to their homes for hand stitching. 

The first improvements consisted of the use of 
wooden pegs and nails, leading to the use of the 
"standard screw." In the chapter upon the history 
of shoemaking we have noted inventions which have 

(123) 



124 The Shoe Industry 

dealt with the attaching of the sole to the upper — 
that of August Destouy in 1862, a machine with a 
curved needle for sewing turned shoes; that of 
Lyman R. Blake, adapted by Gordon McKay, 
introduced in 1862 for the same purpose, and since 
known as the McKay sewing machine; and that 
of Charles Goodyear, who adapted the Destouy 
machine for turned shoes to the sewing of welts 
in 1871, known as the Goodyear Welt machine. 
""^ Illustrations of Methods Now in Use. Upon the 
following pages are presented diagrams and descrip- 
tions of the methods now in use in shoe manufac- 
ture. Most factories confine themselves to one or 
two of these methods, one manufacturer being 
known as a maker of Goodyear Welt shoes, another 
of McKay shoes, and so on. The lighter grades of 
shoes and those worn by women and children are 
Goodyear Welt, McKay, and turned. Many of 
the heavier grades, and especially shoes for outdoor 
wear, such as are worn by farmers, fishermen, and 
soldiers in some countries, are of the pegged and 
standard screw. The McKay method has been 
very extensively used in medium weight and cheaper 
shoes for many kinds of wear. The Goodyear Welt, 
however, has been used more and more extensively 
in the medium and better grades and is the leading 
process in importance at the present time. 




UPPEJ^ 
LININO\ 



V — * " ■• — " 

WELT ) v -CORK FILLING- — STITCH UNITING 
•''0UT50LE INSOLE. UPPER 

CHANNEL. AND WELT 

LIP OF INSOLE- — ' 



Cross Section of a Goodyear Welt Shoe 

This diagram shows the ingenious method em- 
ployed in constructing this now widely worn type 
of shoe, which is perfectly smooth inside. The tacks 
used in lasting are all withdrawn and a machine 
with a curved needle sews the welt and shoe upper 
to the insole without going inside the shoe. The 
heavy outsole is then stitched to the welt. The 
thread used is of the strongest linen and thoroughly 
waxed. It makes the most durable and comfortable 
type of shoe, and one on which the outsole can 
readily be renewed. 

The excellent qualities and popularity of the welt 
shoe have led to many imitations of it in the McKay 
method. 



(125) 




tHANNEL>0~~ LASTING TACK. 
-CLINCHING POINT ^STITCH <JMSKAY MACHINE 
«j LASTING TACK. UNITING 0UT50LE AND INSOLE. 



Cross Section of a McKay Sewed Shoe 

While this is a sewed shoe, it differs radically from 
those made by the Goodyear Welt process, inasmuch 
as the lasting tacks and a line of stitches appear 
inside. It is the method very generally employed 
in making the cheap and medium grades of shoes. 



(126) 



UPPER v 




UNINS 



\ 



\ LASTING TACK. 
STANDARD SCREW. 



^CLINCHING POINT of LASTING TACK. 

Cross Section of a Standard Screwed Shoe 

In making this type of shoe the tacks used in 
lasting are driven away in and clinched against the 
steel bottom of the last. The heavy outsole is tacked 
in place and fastened by means of screws. The 
metal which forms this fastening is in the form of 
wire with continuous screw thread. When the 
screw reaches the inside of the shoe, the machine 
automatically cuts it off and feeds to the next 
fastening. This method makes a strong but stiff 
shoe. 



(127) 




UPPER 



^ \1A5TIN6 tack. 
V V PEG. 

PUNCHING POINT oj LASTING TACK. 

Cross Section of a Pegged Shoe 

This type of shoe differs from the Standard 
Screwed shoe only in the sole fastening, which is 
of wood, in the form of a shoe peg. The machine 
which drives the fastening forms the peg from a 
coil of calendered beech wood, which, as it is required 
by the machine, is cut into individual pegs which 
are driven by the machine and cut off inside the 
shoe. It is a method of manufacture which was 
very generally used in the early part of the last 
century, but which has been largely replaced by 
other methods. 

The nailed shoe has nails in place of wooden pegs. 



(128) 



Methods in Shoe Manufacture 129 

The Turned Shoe. The "turned" or "turn" 
method is used in making fine shoes and slippers for 
women and children. The shoe is made wrong side 
out and then turned right side out. The sole is fas- 
tened to the last and the upper is drawn over it, wrong 
side out, and sewed to it through a channel cut in the 
edge of the sole. The seam does not show upon the 
finished shoe. The chief difference between the turn 
shoe and the welt or McKay is the absence of an in- 
sole. Only good leather of pliable quality can be used 
successfully in making this kind of a shoe, which is 
distinguished always for lightness and flexibility. 
This method was extensively used for light weight 
footwear before the introduction of machinery. The 
chief process has simply become a machine process. 

The Lace Shoe. The items shown in the analysis 
of the lace shoe are as follows: 

Tongue and tongue lining, welt, welting thread, top 
facing, back stay, top, eyelet stay, foxing, laces, 
eyelet stay, top, back stay, bobbin thread, vamp, 
toe box, eyelets, top thread, outer sole, tip, inner 
sole, eyelet lining, doubler, steel shank, top-lift, 
heel, heel pad, lining, counter. 

The McKay method of manufacture led in 
1909, with 41.5 per cent, of the total production; 
the machine or hand-welt method was second, 
with 32.3 per cent.; and the turned product ranked 
third, with 16.3 per cent., followed by the wire- 
screw or metal-fastened, with 7.9 per cent., and the 
wooden pegged, with 2 per cent. 



130 The Shoe Industry 

The McKay method also predominated for three 
of the four classes of boots and shoes and for the 
two classes of slippers for which separate figures 
are presented. Infants' shoes and slippers were 
chiefly turned, while for "all other kinds" the 
machine or hand-welt methods show the largest 
number. 

The Different Stages in Goodyear Welt Manu- 
facture. The various parts of the Goodyear welt 
shoe as they are brought together in the making 
are shown in the illustration upon the following 
page. They are: 

1. A last. 

2. An upper. 

3. An insole. 

4. Shoe lasted and ready to have welt sewed on. 

5. Welt partially sewed on. 

6. Welt entirely sewed on and shoe ready to 

have outsole laid. 

7. An outsole. 

8. Shoe with outsole laid and rounded. 

Channel lip turned up ready to be 
stitched. 

9. Shoe with sole stitched on. 

10. Shoe with heel in place. 

11. Heel trimmed and shoe ready for finishing. 




A Goodyear Welt Shoe in the Different Stages of 
Manufacture 



(131) 



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(132) 



Chapter VIII 
THE UPPER LEATHER DEPARTMENT 



(133) 



CHAPTER VIII 

The Upper Leather Department 

The Importance of Detail in Shoe Manufacture. 
It is the purpose of this and the following chapters 
to present actual factory processes and employment 
opportunities in their order. Most shoe operators 
are restricted to work on particular single machines 
and processes. In a few cases, especially in the 
smaller and older factories, an operator may per- 
form several related processes; or, in other words, 
several related or consecutive processes may be 
combined in one or done on a single machine. 
^An average style shoe in the making must pass 
through over one hundred different pairs of hands 
and about one hundred and fifty different machines, 
involving over two hundred processes, according to 
the methods of particular factories. It is clear, then, 
that the details of manufacture are of the highest 
importance, and that every factory department 
must observe absolutely the specifications of each 
lot of shoes. 

The divisions shown in the following chart are 
the natural divisions of the upper leather department, 
as will appear in this chapter. Trimmings and lin- 
ings need not be separately presented at length. 

(135) 



136 The Shoe Industry 

Pattern making, which has been treated separately 
in Chapter IV, is sometimes made the first division 
of the upper leather department, where patterns 
find their chief use. 

It may be said here, also, that the general plan 
and system of this department and of the other 
departments of shoemaking are the same in all 
factories, and that practically the same machines 
are in use everywhere, but that details and minor 
processes are so numerous that variation in them 
is to be expected. It will not be wise or necessary, 
then, to go into the minutest details of manufacture 
in these pages. Only processes and methods that 
are general or typical need be presented. 

Action upon Receipt of an Order. The making 
of a pair of shoes begins simultaneously in the cutting 
department and in the sole leather department. 
When an order is received in a modern and well- 
organized factory the order department records in 
the order book all the details regarding the samples 
upon which the order was secured. The shoe must 
be made upon these specifications in its course 
through the factory, and when finished it must 
conform to them. 
^ In the order department each lot is given an order 
number. Tags bearing this number and the details 
regarding the preparation of the shoe upper, with one 
tag for each two dozen shoes, are sent to the foreman 
of the cutting room. Other tags containing details 
about the sole leather to be used are sent to the 



CHART OF THE UPPER LEATHER DEPARTMENT 



UPPER LEATHER DEPARTMENT 



Sorting Department 



Trimming, Cutting, and Dinking Department 



Lining and Cloth Cutting Department 



Upper Cutting Department 



Counting, Marking, and Skiving Department 



Assembling Department 



*9 (137) 



138 The Shoe Industry 

foreman of the sole leather department. A third 
lot of tags is prepared for the direction of the foreman 
of the making or bottoming room, where are brought 
together, for assembling, the various parts of the 
uppers prepared in the cutting and stitching rooms 
and of the bottoms prepared in the sole leather room. 

The methods of making out the tags or tickets 
which are used as guides in the various rooms of 
the shoe factory vary in some factories. A clerk 
in the cutting room, for instance, may prepare them 
upon an order sent to him from the order department. 
In all cases, however, the essential points given in 
the tags are the same. The tag specifies the sole, 
heel, upper, kind and quality, the stitching, the style 
of last, bottom finishing, treeing, and packing. 
On the following pages is presented a typical tag 
used in the shoe factory. 

The Day Sheet. The despatch department has 
charge of the passing of work into the factory and 
of following it up through the factory. From the 
tags received by the order department the despatch 
office prepares schedules or bulletins called day 
sheets. These sheets show accurately the details 
of each and every lot of shoes passing into the factory 
on a given day and also the scheduled time when the 
last lot of each day's work should pass a given point 
in the factory. The day sheet contains also supple- 
mentary information showing the exact quantity 
of each of the various special items of product com- 
posing a particular day's work. The sheets are made 



READ THIS TAG 



Cuumtr'i Stock Ho.. 
WlonShlp 



Vamp 
Pgfag 
HP 



VampUn, 



D. Vamp Lin. 



Site Stay 



Top hdsg 



Qlj lining 



2 1 31 1 3 34 i u 



10 15 20 35 30 351 » 46 



Back Stay 



M S H T 71 8 



hIK)|«| 70 j TSJ so 



CUTTING AND FITTING BOTTOMING 



TopPao. 



Tap 



Vamp 



Posing, 



Tip 



BkStay 



TIP TICKET. 



Edge 



F. 8. Fndgj 



Top Po. 



OanHo. 


FOXING TICKET 

Sad Pat. So. 






Stitch So. 


Bad: Stay 






Pts. | Width l|lj 


2 |aj 3 3J 4 |4J B | 5-! { 6 64 7 


74 


8 


1 l»|» 


20 j 25 J 30 j 35 ( 40 j 45 j 50 | 55 1 SO 65 | 70 


76 


80 


1 MM M 




VAMP TICKET 






CasoHo. 


TIP Pat. So. 




Pro. |width| 1 |u 


2 | 2} | 3 J 3* | 1 | 44 | 6 | 5< | 6 | 63 1 7 


» 


3 


| 1 10 1 16 


2o|j5 30 36 1 *OJ 15 50 66* | 60 65 70 


75 


SO 


1 II II II 1 1 II II 1 II 



Case So. 




Kind Pat. Ho. 


'stitch So. 


Fori. tongas Bit Stay 


i Pre. | Width 


1 11 2 |3*| 3 J 34 j 1 J4l| 6 | Si 6 6-1 7 |7i| S 


1 J XC j 15 | 20j 25 1 30 j 35 | «| 15 [ 50 j 65 | 60 j 65 | 70 | TSJ 80 


i 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 II 1 II 




TRIMMING TICKET. 


Ca»Ho, 


.Stum} . ^ 
Side Stay 4r. L So. 


Pre. | "Width 


l.|ll| 2|2l| 3 j 31 1 1 14 6 64 6 64 7 74 8 


' j 10 | 15 j SO [ 25 | 30 j 35 1 4D | 45 | 50 j B5 [ 60 1 65 70 | 75 SO 


I 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 




LINJNG TICKET. 


Case So. 


fat. 

Vp. T.inltifl Sock 7.* w * w ff ,SO. 


Pre. | Width 


1 |lj| .3 2* | 3 34 4 |ll 6 54 6 64 1 7 74 8 


! | " 


10 j IS j -20 j 25 | 30 | 35 j 40 16 j 50 | 66 | 60 | 65 | 70J 75J 80 


i 1 II I i j i M ! ! 1 i ! ! 




SOLE WEATHER TICKET.. 


J Can Ho. 


Lan Connter . Shank 


Outer 
[Sole 


Hod Slip Tap Finish 


Pis. 1 Width 


1 14 2 2J 3 34 | 4 44 6 54 1 6 | 64 | 7 7» 8 


! 1 


10 15 ! 20 25 30 35 40 46 60 ' 56 60 1 65 1 70 75 80 




1 ' 1 


1 11 1 LI l-l ! 11 1 II 


\ 

1 Caso So. 


INSOLE TICKET. 

End Last 


Pro. | Width 


7J17 


2 j 2i | 3 j 34 J 4 44 | 5 | S a | 6 | 64 | 7 | 74 S 


J 10 1 15 


SO [ 25 1 30 ] 35 1 40 46 | 60 | 55 -60 65 | -70 75| 80 


1 II 


1 1 II 1 II 1 1 1 1.1 


r 

tfiUBgUM 


STRAP TICKET. - 

_ Oman 


CaasNo. 


Pn. 1 Width 


l|ll|a|.2,|s|St|-l |«|s|Bi|«|6i| 7[.7i|8 


| |l0|l6|.2fl|25 |30|35|«)-16 SO | 55 j GO | 65 | 70 75] 80^ 


! 1 II 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 II 1 1 1 



A Typical Shoe Tag 



(139) 







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(140) 



The Upper Leather Department 141 

in duplicate. One set is kept in the office and upon 
it are checked off records of the work as it proceeds 
through the factory. This sheet also contains the 
name of the customer for whom the shoes are being 
made, their price, and the name and commission 
of the salesman. Other sets go to the various 
factory rooms as guides and records of the day's 
work. The sheet used in the cutting room contains 
the specifications which constitute the cutting in- 
structions, such as the kind of the upper stock and 
linings to be used, the price, and the number of 
square feet. On this sheet are recorded, also, all 
the details of the work of cutting as the cutting is 
done. The use of the day sheet is quite universal 
in shoe manufacture and it has done much to pro- 
mote efficient methods. On page 140 is presented 
a typical shoe factory day sheet. 

The Upper Leather Room. The upper leather 
room is that division of the upper leather department 
in which leather stock is measured and sorted for 
the cutting room. The department includes the 
care, sorting, and cutting of the leather and other 
materials that enter into the upper of the finished 
shoe, and has three divisions, leather, linings, and 
trimmings, each being usually called a department 
or room. 

n^ Measuring Upper Leather. About two hundred 
different kinds of upper leather are now in use. 
They usually come from the wholesale houses or 
store rooms of the factory in boxes to the upper 



142 The Shoe Industry 

leather room. There they are taken from the 
boxes, counted, measured upon a machine, and 
stamped with the number of square feet in each 
piece. The machine used in measuring the upper 
leather is very sensitive to heat and cold, and must 
be adjusted every morning for the day's use. It 
records the exact number of square inches in the 
skin. The operator of it must be very careful 
and trustworthy. Upper leather constitutes a large 
part of the cost of shoe manufacture, and its econ- 
omic use is absolutely essential in a factory. 

The Leather Sorter. Leather sorting follows 
measuring and is equally important. The cutting 
room tags calling for particular kinds of leather for 
particular lots of shoes are given to the leather 
sorter. He must be able to judge by experience 
exactly the amount and quality of leather required 
to cut each order, though the quantity may be 
figured in the office. He tests its quality by doubling 
a skin along the back and passing his fingers over 
the folded edge. He rolls the skins selected or 
sorted for each lot of shoes into a bundle, attaches 
the ticket which he has used, and sends the bundle 
to the cutter. The leather sorter must himself 
have served several years' apprenticeship as a cutter, 
so as to become used to the kinds, feel, and cutting 
value of leather. After sorting, the upper leather 
is sometimes weighed out by thickness into lots of 
definite weight, and placed on shelves in the room 
until needed for orders from the cutting room. 



The Upper Leather Department 143 

The Lining Sorter. There is usually, also, a sorter 
of the various kinds of cloth, such as twills and 
drills, used for the linings of shoes. These are in- 
spected for their weave, strength, and chemical 
qualities. They are inspected both for acceptance 
by the factory and for grades for particular kinds 
of shoes. They are marked and labeled and put 
away in grades corresponding to intended uses. 
The lining sorter must usually have had training 
in a textile school. 

The Positions in a Sorting Department. In the 
small factory one or two persons only may be em- 
ployed in the work of measuring and sorting leather. 
Very many shoe factories, however, in which large 
and valuable quantities of stock are used daily, have 
a fully organized sorting department. 

The positions in a modern sorting department 
are as follows: 

1. The Inspector, who examines the material 
selected by the sorters for particular uses, to see that 
it is rightly chosen. 

2. The head sorter, who has charge of sorting. 

3. Several or more leather and lining sorters. 

4. One or two weighers of the sorted lots of 
leather. 

5. Men who put up the work called for by the 
cutter's tags, selecting the leather according to the 
price given upon the tag, and placing the bundles 
in their proper places for passage into the cutting 
room. 



144 The Shoe Industry 

6. Girls who figure the allowances of leather 
called for by the tags and keep the cutters' accounts. 
This work must be accurately done and demands 
considerable ability. 

- The Lining and Cloth-Cutting Section. The 
cutting of cloth tops and linings was formerly done 
largely by hand. The hand worker places a pattern 
upon the cloth and cuts quickly around the edge 
of the pattern with a knife. He may cut the cloth 
in the single piece or in layers, up to eight thick- 
nesses. Such cutting is never accurate, and with 
the increased use of textiles in shoemaking it proves 
too slow a method. The dieing or dinking machine 
is being used more and more for the cutting of cloth 
parts. The die made in the shape of the usual pat- 
tern is accurate, and from twenty-four to forty 
thicknesses of cloth may be cut by it at one time, 
increasing the work of the section many fold. The 
cost in cases of die cutting is reckoned at about 
one-tenth of that by hand cutting. Hand dieing or 
dinking is in practice to some extent. 

As has been pointed out, the dieing or dinking 
section works entirely according to the specification 
of tags for each lot of shoes. Lots go through the 
room in pairs varying from one hundred and eight 
to one hundred and fifty in number for hand cutting, 
and about four hundred for machine dieing. The 
usual lining parts to be cut or died out are, quarter 
lining, top band, inside stay, fly lining, back stay, 
and tip. 



The Upper Leather Department 145 

Patterns and dies are selected not only for each of 
these parts but for the particular style of shoe called 
for. 

The Positions in the Lining and Cloth Cutting 
Section. The usual positions connected with the 
cutting of cloth tops and linings are, the Foreman, 
the hand cutters, the machine dinkers, the hand 
dinkers, the pattern boy, the cloth and lining folders, 
the "piece sorters, the inspectors, the cripple cutter, 
and the stock man. There may also be an instruc- 
tor, to aid the foreman in teaching new employees. 
After about one year's service on cloth and linings 
cutters may go to the outside or leather cutting 
room. 

The Cutting Room. The cutting room is that 
division of the upper leather department in which 
the leather is cut, by hand or with a die, for the upper 
parts of the shoe. It is the most important section 
of the large department. The cut parts finally go 
to the assembling room along with the linings from 
the lining room, and are there put together ready 
for the stitching room. 

The Hand Cutter. Cutting the upper parts of 
the shoe by hand was the method preceding the 
introduction of machinery, and is still in use, especi- 
ally in the smaller and older factories, or in factories 
that handle small skins. It is an expert process 
demanding years of practice for the finest work, 
and has been so satisfactory that it gives way but 
slowly to the use of machinery. The particular 



146 The Shoe Industry 

advantage of hand cutting, in addition to the more 
economical use of leather, is that the hand cutter is 
more likely to place his pattern so that the different 
parts of the skin may be cut according to the quali- 
ties needed for the different parts of the shoe. 
With the improvements in the tanning of leather so 
that more uniform qualities are obtained, and with 
the increased demand for speed in cutting, large 
establishments are tending gradually to the use of 
machine dieing. 

-J Hand cutting is done upon hard wood blocks 
made especially for the purpose, or thick "cutting 
boards" arranged at a convenient height for the 
workman to stand before them. He uses a short- 
bladed, keen edged knife. It is a part of his training 
to know how to keep his board smooth and oiled 
regularly and his knife sharp. 

The leather cutter is sometimes called "outside 
cutter," to distinguish him from the cutter of linings 
and trimmings. 

^A The cutter receives a bundle or lot of leather with 
its tag from the sorting room, and the patterns 
called for by the tag from the pattern room. He 
lays out his patterns conveniently at hand in the 
order of large, medium, and small. He places one 
skin at a time upon the block. Placing a particular 
pattern upon it, so that the part selected is best 
suited to the corresponding part of the completed 
shoe, he draws his knife skillfully around the metal 
edge of the pattern. This involves several or more 




A Skin Showing how Patterns are Placed in Cutting 



(147) 



148 The Shoe Industry 

motions, with the dangers of cutting away from the 
pattern and of cutting the fingers. The cutter 
uses his patterns alternately, or with variation of 
sizes and positions, so as to cut the skin most eco- 
nomically. Usually the waste parts are very small 
and unsuited to other purposes in the factory, except 
for such trimmings as back straps and vamp stays. 
They are generally sold to be consumed in making 
leather substitutes, or for the oil they contain. The 
cutter lays out all his cut parts in lots and marks 
the upper piece by pattern, size, width and style. 
He ties up these lots with the tag and a sticker 
attached showing the case number, the number of 
pairs, and the size. 

The work of the cutter is checked up in the sorting 
room, making an exact efficiency record for each 
workman, and the totals of cutting are placed upon 
the cutting room day sheet. 

The outside cutter learns his trade by work upon 
cloth and linings or by service in leather cutting in 
a small factory, 
s^ The Clicking Machine. As has already been 
indicated, large shoe factories are coming to use 
machines for cutting leather, in some factories both 
the hand method and the machine method being 
found side by side. The machine, which performs 
a process formerly thought impossible except by 
hand, has a cutting board or block like that of the 
hand worker. A strong arm or beam swings from 
side to side over this block. A skin is placed upon 




Operating the Clicking Machine 



149 



TheI Upper Leather Department 151 

the block and the operator of the machine sets a 
die upon the leather, just as the hand worker would 
place a pattern upon it. He then swings the arm 
of the machine over the die, which is pressed through 
the leather by the automatic action of the machine. 
The arm then returns automatically to its full 
height. Dies may be used alternately as in hand 
work, so as to cut the skin economically. They are 
mad« in various designs and sizes, with one die for 
each design and size. Thus it will be seen that 
machine cutting calls for a very large number of 
dies. Each is about three-quarters of an inch in 
height, so that the operator can see clearly where 
he is placing it upon the leather, and of such light 
weight as not to injure the leather. Cutting is done 
upon one thickness only. One movement of the arm 
of the machine, guided by the operator, accomplishes 
what it would take the hand cutter considerable 
time to do in passing his knife entirely around the 
edge of the pattern. All pieces cut by a die must 
be identically the same, while in hand cutting there 
would necessarily be some variation in size. The 
dies used for the vamps mark the location of the toe 
cap and Blucher foxings that may be added later. 
The cut parts are treated as in hand work, and sent 
on to the next operations. 

The die cutting machine is called the "clicking 
machine," and is one of the most important recent 
innovations in the making of shoes. An illustra- 
tion of this machine is on page 149. 



152 The Shoe Industry 

The Counting, Marking, and Skiving Department. 
In a small factory many of the minor operations of 
shoemaking are done in some part of the rooms in 
which the related major processes are performed. 
Such minor operations may employ but few people. 
In the larger factories, however, they become very 
important because of the large number of shoes 
made daily. They then employ many persons and 
are carried on in separate rooms and departments. 
Such is the department in which the counting, 
marking, and skiving of the pieces coming from the 
cutting room are done. The cutter, or some other 
employee in the cutting room, has marked only 
the top piece of each lot. In this department girls 
untie the lots, count them to see that the number 
called for by the tag is present, and mark the size 
upon each part. The employees of this department, 
except for a machinist who has charge of the ma- 
chines, are regularly girls and women. The entire 
department is sometimes called the skiving depart- 
ment, from the chief process in it. 

Skiving. The edges of the upper leather which 
are to show in the finished shoe are "skived," or 
beveled to a thin edge which can be folded in so as 
to give a more finished appearance to the completed 
shoe. This work is done by girls upon skiving 
machines. Such edges on thick leather are some- 
times stained the color of the leather itself instead 
of being skived. The skived edges are covered with 



The Upper Leather Department 153 

a coating of cement, and placed in a machine which 
folds and presses them at the same time. 

Nicking. All curved edges of upper leather parts 
are nicked or cut with little notches by girls upon 
nicking machines. This is done so that such parts 
may be folded in evenly and smoothly in stitching 
the shoe. Sometimes edges which will show in the 
completed shoe are scalloped. 

Dleing Out Straps. Straps for Oxford shoes and 
button flies are usually died out by hand, by the use 
of a mallet, in this department, rather than by the 
cutter in the cutting room, where, being the smallest 
parts, they cause some delay in cutting. 

Positions in the Skiving Department. The posi- 
tions in the skiving department are, the Forewoman; 
floor girls, who give out work, gather it up, and 
check it off as it leaves the room; counters and 
markers; skivers; nickers and scallopers; edge stain- 
ers, and the machinist. 

Assembling Department. The upper parts of 
the shoe come on trucks from the skiving room to 
the assembling department. Here are many boxes 
in which the lots are placed according to numbers, 
with four tags for each order, the tag for the outer, 
upper part of the shoe, for linings, for trimmings, 
and for tip. In each box are placed all the parts 
necessary for the complete upper, by adding to each 
lot what its tag calls for. Linings are marked upon 
a stamping machine with size, width, and case 
number. When all parts have been assembled they 



154 The Shoe Industry 

are divided for the various sections of the stitching 
room. For instance, quarter linings, top bands, 
button flies or side stays go to the tip-stitching sec- 
tion; tips go to the tip-stitching section; and the 
outside parts, vamps, vamp linings, and tongues, 
go to the vamping section. 

Positions in the Assembling Department. The 
positions in the assembling department are, the 
Foreman, floor girls, girls for casing up, for stamping 
linings, and for arranging tags in order of precedence, 
and a stock boy. 

Time and Pay Statistics in the Cutting Depart- 
ment. At the end of this and other chapters on 
factory departments are presented statistics selected 
from Bulletin No. 178 of the United States Bureau 
of Labor Statistics, showing average wages, weekly 
earnings, and hours per week in boot and shoe manu- 
facture throughout the country from 1910 to 1914, 
and by states for 1914. 

The figures here given are for a selected number 
of establishments, but may he regarded as repre- 
sentative of the entire industry, as according to the 
census of 1910 more than ninety-seven per cent, of 
the total number of employees in the industry were 
found in the states from which the information was 
secured. 

Among other things, it will be observed by Table 
VII, on pages 156 and 157, that hand cutters, whose 
work is more exacting than that of machine cutters, 
received in 1914 thirty-six and three-fifth cents per 



The Upper Leather Department 155 

hour, or $19.66 a week; while machine cutters re- 
ceived thirty-two and one-half cents per hour, or 
$17.93 per week. It will be seen, also, that male 
skivers in 1914 received twenty-nine and nine- 
tenths cents an hour, or $16.13 a week; while female 
skivers received twenty and nine-tenths cents an 
hour, or $11.30 a week. In Table VIII, on page 159, 
may be seen the variations of earnings in these 
operations in the great shoe manufacturing centers 
of the country. 



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(1«9) 



Chapter IX 
THE STITCHING DEPARTMENT 



(161) 



CHAPTER IX 

The Stitching Department 

N| Definition. The stitching department is that 
division of the factory in which the outer parts of 
the upper of the shoe, the linings, and the trimmings 
are sewed together upon machines, ready for putting 
upon the last. In some factories this division is 
called the "fitting room." Female employees gen- 
erally work in this department, but at present men 
are being employed more and more on the vamping 
machines and other heavy parts of stitching. In a 
factory having 5,000 employees about 1,400 are 
found in the stitching department. The machines 
used in the stitching room are similar to the ordinary 
sewing machine used in the home. 
^ Variations in Stitching Room Processes. Methods 
and details in the stitching department differ more 
than in the cutting and other departments of the 
shoe factory, because of the many parts composing 
the upper of the shoe. There are more processes 
involved in the making of women's shoes, with the 
constant striving after style and effect, than in men's 
shoes, in which plainness and serviceable qualities 
are desired. Processes may be modified, also, in 
making children's and infants' footwear. Different 

(168) 



164 The Shoe Industry 

kinds of shoes, as high, low, and pumps, require 
variations in the methods of sewing the various 
parts of the upper. Altogether the stitching depart- 
ment involves a large number of processes of minute 
detail and possibility of variation. The generally 
prevailing methods are here presented. 

The Number and Divisions of the Parts to be 
Stitched. For the uppers of an ordinary pair of 
button boots, as an example, there are forty-four 
different pieces of material. The stitching is done 
upon many of these parts simultaneously before the 
upper is ready for lasting. The size is marked upon 
every part. The linings and the trimmings are 
given to one division of operators, the outsides to an- 
other, and the vamps and tips to still another 
division. All these parts meet again when each 
has been sewed, and are inspected and sent on to 
the lasting room. 

^ The Divisions of This Department. The natural 
divisions of this department are shown in the follow- 
ing chart. They are, the Lining department, the 
tip department, closing and staying, foxing, top 
stitching, or closing on and top stitching, and the 
button hole, vamping, and toe closing department. 

The Lining Department. In the lining depart- 
ment various parts of the lining are pasted and 
sewed together in preparation for the top stitching 
department, where the lining as a whole will be 
sewed to the upper of the shoe. Each operation 
here spoken of may be a single process or may 



CHART OF THE STITCHING DEPARTMENT 



STITCHING DEPARTMENT 



Lining Department 



Tip Department 



Closing and Staying Department 



Foxing Department 



Top Stitching Department 



Button Hole Department 



Vamping Department 



Toe Closing Department 



(165) 



166 The Shoe Industry 

represent several minor processes. First the lining 
is closed or sewed in a seam, and taped, or stayed 
up and down the heel. The top band is sewed on. 
The button fly, which has a reinforcement in the 
man's shoe, is also stitched on. A lining is stitched 
upon the tongue for some shoes. The vamp lining 
is cemented merely to hold it in place for later 
sewing. Labels are stitched on the lining of the 
inside of the heel for Oxford shoes, and on the inside 
of the top of the lining for boots. The more common 
kinds of boots, for instance, are, the button, the 
Polish, the Blucher; of low shoes, the Oxford and 
the pump. 

Positions in the Lining Department. The usual 
positions in the lining department of the stitching 
room are, the Superintendent, the forewoman, the 
inspector, operators on the closing .of linings, on 
the staying of linings, on sewing of top bands, and 
on attaching labels, the floor girls, and a cripple 
girl who attends to all imperfect work. 
— [ The Tip Department. The tip department is 
that section of the stitching room in which the tip 
receives special preparation for its place in the com- 
plete upper, and in which it is sewed to the vamp. 
Tips come from the cutting room tied in bunches 
separate from the other parts of the shoe. In the 
tip department they are skived, perforated, and 
fitted with linings according to use on particular 
vamps, or, in other words, on shoes of particular 
styles . Usually a box to give reinforcement and style 



The Stitching Department 167 

to the tips is cemented inside of it before the lining 
is inserted, and before the tip is stitched to the 
vamp. The tip may be skived and folded in, 
perforated, nicked, scalloped, or plain, each process 
involved belonging to this department. The lining 
is cemented in, taped over seams, and pressed 
firmly in place upon a machine, and the whole is 
top-stitched on a machine, through leather and 
lining, just below the line of perforation. Then 
the tip is stitched above the perforation to the vamp 
of the upper; and this part of the upper is ready for 
the vamping department. 

"** Perforating. Perforating deserves special mention 
since it gives style to the tip, and is of itself an 
interesting process and a good example of intricacy 
in shoe making processes. A series of ornamental 
perforations is stamped by a combination of small 
dies upon the "power tip press" or upon the "per- 
forating machine." The holes thus stamped take 
particular styles which are known in the shoe fact- 
ories by numbers. For instance, perforation "num- 
ber 69" consists of a large hole and a small one 
alternating in a line near the edge of the tip, over the 
top, thus: ooooo, and "number 70" consists of a 
large hole alternating with two small ones, thus: 
o o o o o o o. The size of the holes may vary. If you 
will look at the tip of your shoe you will probably 
find one of these styles or a variation of them. 

The machine feeds itself automatically, dieing the 
full perforation accurately at one stroke for each 



168 The Shoe Industry 

tip, as the tips pass through in line upon a moving 
band of paper, which prevents dulling the die. 
This machine is used also for perforating larger parts 
of shoes, such as vamps, foxings, and ornamental 
"winged tips." 

Positions in the Tip Department. The positions 
in the tip department are numerous and may be 
shown more clearly, as will other departments having 
many positions in the following pages, by a numbered 
list as follows, using the terms which are common 
in the factory: 

1. The Superintendent, in a large factory. 

2. Forewomen. 

3. Quality Inspector. 

4. Lining Closers. 

5. Stayers. 

6. Toe Piece Ironers. 

7. Tapers. 

8. Reinforcers. 

9. Tip Markers. 

10. Toe Lining Reinforcers. 

11. Tip Pressers. 

12. Vamp Pressers. 

13. Vamp Perforators. 

14. Box Cementers. 

15. Stitchers of tongue to vamp. 

16. Tip Perforators. 

17. Tip Blackers. 

18. Stitchers of tip and vamp. 

19. Floor Girls. 



The Stitching Department 169 

20. Cripple Girls. 

21.' "Hustle Girls," who look up the dates upon the 
tags and keep orders moving in their proper sequence. 

The Closing and Staying Department. The clos- 
ing and staying department deals with cementing, 
sewing, and securing the seams of the top of the upper, 
the part above the foxing and toe of all kinds of 
shoes, following the work done upon the linings and 
tips." First, the button fly is pressed, then closed 
or sewed to one quarter, and the two quarters of 
the top are sewed together. The top piece is ce- 
mented on the inside of the large quarter, which 
bears the button fly, and the quarter is stayed. The 
top of the button Oxford is ironed out at the heel 
seam, and a reinforcement ironed upon the button 
fly. The Blucher Oxford is nicked and pressed. A 
paper reinforcement is ironed upon the inside of 
the top of the circular pump. Bows of various 
kinds and colors are made by machines for Oxfords, 
and fastened upon them by a machine which drives 
a metal reinforcement into the bow. Canvas stays 
are put in the top of Oxfords. A long vamp is re- 
inforced for eyelets, and a stay is cemented in when 
blind eyelets are to be inserted. Perforations are 
sometimes covered with imitation reinforcements 
on the inside, or stitched around the outside. Per- 
foration upon the top has tape placed on the inside 
and stitched underneath. Buckle straps and instep 
straps are attached to some styles of shoes. 

There are many such operations in this division 



170 The Shoe Industry 

of the stitching department, according to the par- 
ticular kinds of shoes made in a factory. Each 
style is kept separate in going through the depart- 
ment. Stitching machines are now made for use 
upon certain styles and parts of shoes only, special- 
ization in machinery extending to the most minute 
parts of processes throughout the factory. 

Positions in the Closing and Staying Department. 
The usual positions in this department are as follows : 

1. Forewomen, or assistants to foreman. 

2. Inspectors. 

3. Teacher for new help. 

4. Closers. 

5. Label Girls and Cementers. 

6. Button Fly Pressers. 

7. Button Fly Reinforcers. 

8. Stayers. 

9. Toe Piece Reinforcers. 

10. Cementers and Pressers. 

11. Floor Girl. 

12. Checker Girl, who checks off all numbers of 
lots so that it may be known when the parts are 
all done and have gone to the next department. 

The Foxing Department. The foxing department 
is one of the smallest divisions of the stitching room. 
The foxing is a little piece of upper leather below 
the quarters on each side of the heel, put on all kinds 
of boots and Oxfords. Foxing is used on both the 
high and the low styles of footwear. It is both 
plain and ornamented, according to the style and 



The Stitching Department 171 

quality of the shoe. Back straps and fly stays are 
stitched upon the quarters to which the foxing is 
attached, and then the foxing, ornamented with 
perforations in this department, if need be, is 
stitched upon the quarters, sometimes with one row 
of stitching and sometimes with two rows. The 
operations are the same with canvas as with leather 
uppers. The work when done and checked off on 
the day sheet goes to the top stitching department. 

The ordinary Polish shoe, not the Blucher, and 
the Oxford shoe, both Blucher and common, have a 
long vamp and no foxing. 

Several related or similar operations, also, are 
performed in the foxing department, such as sewing 
loops at the top of the back of the shoe, on men's 
shoes, and sewing on buckle straps. 

Positions in the Foxing Department. The usual 
positions here are these: 

1. Forewomen, or assistants to foreman. 

2. Teacher. 

3. Inspector. 

4. Perforators. 

5. Back Strap Stitchers. 

6. Side Stay Stitchers. 

7. Binders. 

8. Button Fly Face Stitchers. 

9. Foxing Stitchers. 

10. Floor Girls. 

11. Cripple Girls. 

12. Checker Girls, 
•n 



172 The Shoe Industry 

The Top Stitching Department. The top stitching 
department is the division of the stitching room in 
which the tops, the leather upper part, coming 
from the foxing department, and the linings, from 
the lining department, are sewed together. Quarters 
and linings are first matched upon tables and tied 
together in bundles, according to tag numbers. 
This work is done by floor girls, who give the bundles 
thus matched to the machine operators. In some 
factories vamps are sewed on at the same time as 
the tops and linings are sewed together. 

The methods of the department vary, as in other 
sections of the factory, according to the style of 
shoes being made. Generally the top and lining 
are put together back to back, or wrong side out, 
and stitched along the edge of the top. Then the 
top is turned and the seam is pounded out so that 
the edge of the leather on the right side comes out 
true and flat. Then this part goes to the top stitcher, 
who sews it all around except at the bottom where 
the vamp is still to be attached. The side of the 
quarter on which buttons are to be sewed on the 
button shoe is pinked or notched upon the edge in 
case of a raw edge of the lining and the leather sewed 
together. Usually in the case of canvas shoes vamp- 
ing is done in this department before top stitching. 

More men are found in this department than in 
the other divisions of the stitching room because 
the work is sometimes heavier and more exacting, 
calling for considerable strength when followed 



The Stitching Department 173 

from day to day, as well as for skill. The parts 
must be sewed, carefully turned and thoroughly 
beaten, and sewed again in finished form, making 
altogether, perhaps, the most difficult work of the 
stitching room, and the department is the largest 
division of the stitching room. 

Positions in the Top Stitching Department. The 
positions in this section are the following: 

1. Forewomen. 

2. Teacher. 

3. Inspector. 

4. Operators of closing on machines. 

5. Operators for turning and pounding top. 

6. Top Stitchers. 

7. Vampers. 

8. Floor Girls. 

9. Cripple Girls. 

The Button Hole Department. The button hole 
department includes the making of button holes 
and the inserting of eyelets. The tops of button 
and of lace shoes come from the top stitching de- 
partment to this department. The small quarter 
under the button fly is pinked, and the fly is marked 
for button holes by means of a perforated pattern 
through which the places for buttons are marked by 
hand with a pencil or yellow crayon. Then the 
button holes are inserted by a power machine which 
cuts the hole and works it around at the same time. 
In eyeleting the upper is marked by hand for the 
eyelet. Then the eyelet is inserted on a machine. 



174 The Shoe Industry 

A machine has recently come into use which inserts 
eyelets in both sides of the top at the same time. 
In the case of "blind eyelets" a hole is stamped 
through the leather, lining, and reinforcement. 
The leather is then held back by the operator and 
eyelets are stamped through the lining and the re- 
inforcement, the leather only showing on the outside 
of the hole. In some factories blind eyelets are 
inserted as a single process on an automatic machine. 
In men's high lace shoes hooks are inserted by a 
machine above the rows of eyelets. Raw edges are 
blacked or colored so as to make the edge of the 
lining resemble the leather. 

Pairs of tops are now examined for matching and 
are tagged by sizes ready for vamping. 

Positions in the Button Hole Department. The 
usual positions in the button hole section are as 
follows : 

1. Forewoman. 

2. Teacher. 

3. Inspector. 

4. Quarter Pinkers. 

5. Button Hole Makers. 

6. Button Hole Workers. 

7. Machine Eyeleters. 

8. Button Hole Finishers. 

9. Button Hole Trimmers. 

10. Operators for Cording the cloth button shoe. 

11. Edge Blackers. 

12. Girls for Matching and Tagging pairs. 



The Stitching Department 175 

13. Floor Girls. 

14. Cripple Girls. 

1 The Vamping Department. The vamp is the 
lower, front part of the shoe upper. It is the most 
important part of the upper and should be cut from 
the best of leather. The "cut off vamp" extends 
only to the shoe tip. The whole vamp extends from 
toe to heel with a seam at the heel only. Vamping 
consists in stitching the vamp to the quarters of 
the top. While some vamping may be done in the 
top stitching department, the process itself is an 
important one, and is a separate section in a factory. 
Vamps are first centered by being folded and marked 
in the center of the throat. Then the vamp is 
stitched to the quarters, each style of shoe calling 
for its special process. Usually leather parts only 
are sewed, the lining being held back. 
^ Vamping is the most painstaking work of the 
stitching room and the best paying. Judgment and 
carefulness are absolutely essential to the operator. 
Three-fourths of the vampers are men. Hand 
strength is necessary in the heavier kinds of vamping, 
to pull and hold parts in place while they are being 
stitched, and to guide the work through the machine. 

Positions in the Vamping Department. The few 
positions of the vamping department are, the 
Superintendent, foreman, man instructor, inspector, 
vampers, floor girls, cripple girls, and checker. 

The Toe Closing Department. The toe closing 
department is the final division of stitching. The 



176 The Shoe Industry 

toes of all linings are made in two pieces. When 
the toe closing department is reached tops and 
linings have been stitched together and vamps have 
been sewed to the tops. In the toe closing depart- 
ment the leather vamp is held back and the two 
parts of the toe lining, one being laid flat upon the 
other so as to avoid a thick seam, are double stitched. 
This is a quick and easy operation. 

Several other processes best done at this stage of 
shoemaking are performed in this department. 
In button shoes the side of the top which is to bear 
the buttons is marked for the buttons through the 
holes of the other side, by hand. Then the buttons 
are sewed on by a machine operator. Then comes 
the process of barring, or inserting a few stitches 
on a machine just below the buttons and above the 
vamp. Button Oxfords are fully buttoned, high 
button shoes only part way, in preparation for 
lasting. Laced shoes are laced by hand or on a 
machine. Lots are made ready by tags and numbers 
for the lasters. 

Positions in the Toe Closing Department. The 
positions in this division are, the Superintendent, 
forewoman, inspector, toe closers, markers for but- 
tons, button sewers, operators of barring machines, 
girls for buttoning and lacing shoes, floor girls, 
cripple girls, and packers who sort cases of lots of 
shoes for lasting. 

Operating Stitching Machines. The stitching 
department deserves special mention on account 



The Stitching Department 177 

of its magnitude, intricate processes, and peculiar 
machines. 
nj Machine operators in the stitching room generally 
learn on inside work, as linings, or by work upon 
cheaper leather parts, or by low grade work. In cer- 
tain seasons of the year there is a transfer of operators 
from department to department, according to need. 
Some operators know how to run a number of ma- 
chines, frequently being taught to run a second 
one as if just entering the factory. The difficulty 
of handling a power sewing machine, as of a power 
machine in general, is to know when to start and 
when to stop the machine. On all machines the 
start is made by pressing the toe, and the stop by 
pressing the heel. Sometimes a factory has a special 
room where not only the processes of stitching take 
place but all other processes as well, for the making 
of special "hurry orders" of shoes, 
sj Some automatic machines produce in operators, 
especially in the case of girls, the particular move- 
ment of the machine so that the operator responds 
to the motion, swinging or jumping the entire body 
or exhibiting a nervous, spasmodic action. This 
is especially noticeable in running the barring ma- 
chine in which the part bearing the needle rises and 
springs toward the operator at each operation, and 
upon machines having an eccentric movement. 
In such cases operators are usually transferred in 
time to different or less injurious machines or 
processes. 



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(184) 



Chapter X 
THE SOLE LEATHER DEPARTMENT 



(185) 



CHAPTER X 

The Sole Leather Department 

Its Nature. As the upper leather department is 
sometimes called upper stock fitting, so the sole 
leather department is often called bottom stock 
fitting. It deals with the preparation of the bottom 
parts of the shoe. These are: 

1. Soles. 

2. Insoles. 

3. Counters. 

4. Toe Boxes. 

5. Heels. 

The Preparation of Sole Leather Parts. These 
parts may all be prepared in specialized factories 
and sold to shoe factories, or large shoe concerns 
may themselves have special departments for the 
preparation of these parts from the sides of sole 
leather. Briefly, in either case the sole leather is 
dampened by dipping it in water to make it cut 
more easily, and the desired parts are cut out in the 
rough by means of dies in "dieing-out machines." 
The shoe factory, when buying such parts, usually 
buys them in this condition. The cut parts are then 
made to conform nearly to the desired shape for 
shoemaking by rounding them in the "rounding 

*12 ( 187 ) 



188 The Shoe Industry 

machine." This machine uses a pattern of the 
required shape and by means of a knife cuts around 
the sole in conformity with the pattern. The 
outsole is passed through a heavy rolling machine 
to press the fibers very closely together, so as to 
increase the wear of the shoe as did the hammering 
of the old time shoemaker. The sole is then passed 
through a splitting machine which reduces it to an 
even thickness. The insole, or innersole, is made 
in the same way as the outersole but of lighter 
leather. These and other parts of the shoe bottom 
will be spoken of again in the following pages. 

The Division of Bottom Stock Fitting. There 
are three important divisions in the bottom stock 
fitting or sole leather department. That dealing 
with the divisions of the insole depends upon two 
special methods of shoemaking as described in 
Chapter VIII. The three divisions are the following : 

1. McKay Insole Division. 

2. Welt Insole Division. 

3. Outer Sole Division. 

The McKay Insole Department. In the making 
of McKay insoles material is usually bought in 
roughly blocked form. Since light leather is used 
regularly for the inner sole in this method of shoe- 
making the blocks are first dipped in a solution of 
glue, so that when dried they will become somewhat 
hardened and strengthened. They are then died 
out or dinked upon a machine in sizes and widths, 
with a full set for each style of shoe to be made. 



The Sole Leather Department 180 

They are cased up by girls, according to the accom- 
panying tags. 

Positions in the McKay Insole Department, The 
few positions here are, the Foreman, girls for dipping 
the insoles in glue, dinkers or operators of dieing 
out machines, girls for casing up soles, and a checker 
girl. 

There may be other operations in this division, 
such as "stitch slashing" and reinforcing the heels 
of insoles. 

, The Welt Insole Department. Inner soles made 
by the welt method are of two kinds, leather and 
reinforced. The all-leather sole must be of good 
quality, and at least of a standard thickness. The 
reinforced sole may be of poorer quality and thinner, 
yet of a fixed standard. In such soles the leather 
is reinforced or strengthened by a covering of can- 
vas cemented firmly upon it. For welt insoles the 
leather is bought in full side stock, that is, uncut, 
and in the rough block form. The soles are first 
dinked out as in the McKay division, and sizes are 
stamped upon the heels by hand. Then the heel 
seat is cut across in a machine to indicate the posi- 
tion of the front of the heel. Girls usually perform 
this operation because of their quickness of hand. 
One person may cut the heels of 10,000 insoles in a 
day. This is a good illustration of a process in which 
scarcely more than one simple motion is involved. 
J Channeling. The purpose of the welt method 
is to give a smooth, even inner sole in the finished 



190 The Shoe Industry 

shoe. To effect this the sole must be either pasted 
in or attached on its under surface. The latter 
is accomplished by passing the insole through the 
Goodyear channeling machine which makes in- 
cisions, or a double "lip," with two knives acting 
at the same time. A slit about one-half inch deep 
is cut from within along the edge of the insole. 
Then the channel thus made is opened up on a lip- 
turning machine, forming a ridge around the outer 
edge. The welt is later sewed to this lip or shoulder. 

Slashing. The welt inner sole is sometimes 
slashed or cut across the ball of the foot on the under 
side, to make it flexible. 

Wetting. Leather inner soles are passed through 
heavy rollers, in which they are wet and compressed 
at the same time. They are now sorted and packed 
to go to the lasting room. 

Randing. The rand is a strip of leather made 
thin at one edge. It is attached to the heel part of 
the sole, or later to the heel itself, so as to fill what 
would otherwise be an open space between the 
sole and the heel. 

Reinforced Insoles. The reinforced insole is 
characterized by lightness and strength. Soles 
which are to be thus treated are first died or stamped 
out as in other cases. They are channeled with a 
single lip which is turned up to indicate the place 
of the canvas reinforcement. They may be slashed 
and dampened as in the case of the leather sole. 
They are then dried under a large fan or in a blower, 



The Sole Leather Department 191 

having been cemented by a brush on the surface 
inside the lip. 
\j The Canvas Reinforcement. A large roll of can- 
vas of suitable width is run through a cement box 
and over a great reel, one side of the canvas only being 
wet with cement. The canvas dries upon the reel, 
is taken off in a roll, and cut in the proper rein- 
forcement lengths, which are later fitted by hand 
updn the leather insole inside of the lip and "formed" 
or rubbed thoroughly into the space by a machine. 
The surplus canvas is then trimmed off at the edge 
of the lip. The soles are then cleaned, inspected, 
sorted, and packed up for the lasting room. 

Positions in the Welt Insole Department. The 
positions in this department, including those already 
indicated and several others which may be found 
in most factories, are as follows: 

1. The Superintendent. 

2. Foremen. 

3. Assistant Foremen. 

4. Quantity Man, who makes a study of the 

volume of work done in the department. 

5. Quality Man, who inspects work for quality. 

6. Dinkers and Stampers. 

7. Heel Markers and Cutters. 

8. Channelers. 

9. Slashers. 

10. Lip Cutters. 

11. Lip Turners. 

12. Toe Cutters. 



192 The Shoe Industry 

13. Wetters and Cementers. 

14. Heel Counters. 

15. Randers. 

16. Canvas Cutters. 

17. Canvas Attachers. 

18. Canvas Formers. 

19. Canvas Trimmers. 

20. Sorters and Packers. 

21. Floor Boy. 

The Outer Sole Department. The treatment of 
outer soles is largely like that given to inner soles. 
The main processes are much the same with a few 
additional processes and features. Outer soles are 
first cut into the rough block form and are then 
dinked out, or "rounded" by being cut by pattern 
upon a machine. Sizes are stamped upon the heel. 
They are shanked out and the heel seat is smoothed 
by a machine. They are then wet and moulded 
upon a high pressure machine to the shape of the 
shoe bottom, being at the same time hardened by 
the pressure. A feather edge is given to the fore- 
part and heel seat of the soles which are to be treated 
by the McKay process. Channels are cut and 
turned in those to be treated by the welt 
process. 

Positions in the Outersole Department. The 
positions in this department, from the superintendent 
down, are practically the same as those of the insole 
department, on page 191, with the exception of 
cementers and canvas workers. 



The Sole Leather Department 193 

The Counter Department. As has been said 
already, small parts of the shoe, such as the counter, 
toe box, and heel, presented briefly at this place, are 
largely manufactured in special factories and pur- 
chased in quantity by the shoe companies. Large 
factories, however, or shoe manufacturing companies 
operating a number of factories, usually have de- 
partments for making their own counters, toe 
boxes", heels, and other minor parts. Opportunities 
for employment in the specialized factories depend 
mainly upon the magnitude of manufacture, the 
large number of parts turned out daily requiring 
little skill but many hands in the making. 

The counter is a stiffening in the back part of the 
shoe between the leather and the lining, and lasted 
with the rest of the top to the bottom of the shoe. 
Its purpose is to prevent running over at the heel. 
It is made of sole leather, leatherboard, leather 
fiber, or similar substance that may be easily worked 
and yet left firm after treatment, and sometimes of 
metal in the case of heavy shoes. 

The counter is died out and its edges skived thin. 
It is treated with shellac or glue and moulded into 
shape. 

The Toe Box Department. The toe box is a re- 
inforcement placed in the toe of the shoe to give 
permanency of shape or a distinctive style. It is 
usually made of sole leather, but it may be made of 
leatherboard, pasteboard, canvas, linoleum, cellu- 
loid, or of other materials which can be easily worked 



194 The Shoe Industry 

and made to retain their shape. The box is died 
out, skived upon the part above the toe, soaked in 
shellac or gum so as to be stiff when dry, and usually 
moulded to the desired form, ready for use in the 
lasting room. 

The Heel Department. In Chapter XIV, upon the 
terms used in shoemaking, an explanation is given 
of the heel and its varieties. So it is necessary 
here to speak only of the materials and processes of 
its manufacture. 

Heels are usually made of the poorer parts of sole 
leather, including the remnants from counters and 
toe boxes, leatherboard, "hydite," or other leather 
substitutes, and of wood. 

^ The Processes of Making Heels. The leather 
is first "fitted," which consists of skiving and rolling. 
It is skived by being run through a machine to give 
it an even thickness, and rolled to make it hard 
and firm. It is then weighed and given to the 
cutter. Each operator on the cutting or dinking 
machine has five or six dies and cuts the leather 
as economically as possible into various sizes for 
heel lifts. These are then sorted by hand into 
four grades, and put into bins according to sizes, 
ready for "heel building." The heel builder receives 
a tag calling for so many heels of a certain size and 
gets from the bins the lifts required by the size. 
The lifts are placed one upon another, by a grada- 
tion of sizes, up to the height necessary for the heel. 
The pile is pasted or glued and a nail is driven 



The Sole Leather Department 195 

through by a machine to hold it firmly together. 
Many of these piles, or heels in the rough form, 
are put upon boards and placed in the flat press 
where they remain for twenty-four hours under 
high pressure. They are then put into a com- 
pressing machine which moulds them into any de- 
sired shape. After this rands are tacked upon them, 
when not first attached to the heel seat, so that 
they will fit closely upon the heel seat of the sole 
of the shoe. Then the front part or breast of 
the heel is cut off smoothly, as this can be done 
better before the heel is attached. Heels are then 
sorted, gauged for height, trimmed upon their edges, 
put into bags, and stored away until called for by 
the making department. A top piece, or lift of 
superior leather is put upon the heel later in the 
making department. 

Positions in Heel Making. The usual positions 
in a heel factory or in the heel department of a 
modern shoe factory are as follows : 

1. The Superintendent. 

2. Assistant Superintendent. 

3. Foreman. 

4. Assistant Foreman. 

5. Skivers. 

6. Rollers. 

7. Cutters. 

8. Weighers. 

9. Heel Lift Sorters. 
10. Heel Lift Gaugers. 



196 The Shoe Industry 

11. Heel Builders. 

12. Flat Press Men. 

13. Rand Makers. 

14. Rand Tackers. 

15. Compressors. 

16. Heel Sorters. 

17. Heel Repairers. 

18. Lumpers. 

Employees in the Sole Leather Department. The 
heavier processes in this department and the larger 
machines require men as operators, but the many 
lighter processes and the handling of small parts 
make possible the employment of large numbers 
of boys and girls and women. In the average 
factory this department usually has about an even 
division of male and female employees, standing 
next to the stitching room in its proportion of the 
latter. 



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(198) 



Chapter XI 
THE MAKING DEPARTMENT 



(199) 



CHAPTER XI 

The Making Department 

Its Nature. This department is called also the 
bottoming department and the "gang" room, the 
last name arising from the earlier custom of work 
in this department under the gang system. Here 
the uppers of shoes, prepared in the cutting room 
and stitching room, and the soles, fitted in the sole 
leather room, are brought together, lasted, and 
made into shoes ready for finishing. This depart- 
ment falls into natural divisions as follows: 

1. The Lasting Department. 

2. The Welt Bottoming Department. 

3. The McKay Bottoming Department. 

4. The Heeling Department. 

5. The Turn Shoe Department. 

6. The Standard Screw, Nailed, or Pegged De- 

partment. 
These divisions are not clearly drawn and through 
them all runs the large general method of bottoming, 
modified only by the variations necessary for attach- 
ing uppers to the bottoms of certain styles and kinds 
of shoes, as has been already explained at length 
in Chapter VIII upon "Methods in Shoe Manu- 
facture." There are many processes in the making 

201 



The Shoe Industry 

room, about fifty, for instance, following through 
any one method, and many more made necessary 
by the multiplication of methods. 

The Lasting Department. There are two methods 
of lasting, by hand and by machinery. The first, 
like most other processes in shoemaking, is giving 
way rapidly to the machine method. 

Adjusting the upper of the shoe to the last is the 
beginning of the work done in the bottoming depart- 
ment. The box toe is put in its proper place between 
the lining and the upper, and the counter in its place 
at the heel, between the lining and the upper. Then 
the upper is drawn over the last upon which has 
already been tacked the insole, which conforms 
exactly to the shape of the last, and is tacked to 
hold it in place. 

The Pulling Over Machine. As the parts of the 
shoe have been cut to conform to the shape of the 
last they must be accurately attached upon it. 
The pulling over machine has pincers which act 
exactly like the human fingers. These pincers 
grasp the leather at various points around the toe 
and draw it closely against the wood of the last 
upon the inner sole. By an adjustment of levers all 
parts of the upper are drawn in evenly and tacked 
^securely in place. 

Toe and Heel Wiping. The toe and heel are 
the most difficult parts to last properly. These are 
drawn in by a series of wipers upon the lasting 
machine, so evenly that no wrinkles are left, and 




Operating the Rex Pulling Over Machine 



203 



The Making Department 205 

held in place by a strip of tape, fine wire, or by tacks. 
Tacks except at the heel, where they are clinched 
on the inside, are driven only part way in so that they 
may later be withdrawn to leave the inside of the 
shoe perfectly smooth, the distinctive feature of the 
welt method. 

> The Upper Trimming Machine. The surplus 
upper leather drawn over the bottom at the toe and 
heel and sometimes at the sides of the shoe, is re- 
moved upon the upper trimming machine in which 
a knife cuts the extra parts away very smoothly 
and evenly, while at the same time a small hammer 
pounds the leather smooth along the sides and toe 
of the shoe. 

The shoe then passes to another machine by which 
the leather and counter around the heel are beaten 
into conformity with the last, making the entire 
bottom ready for the welt bottoming processes. 

Positions in the Lasting Department. The chief 
positions in this department are, the Superintendent, 
foreman, .operators of the pulling over machine, the 
lasting machine, and the trimming and pounding 
machines. 

The Welt Bottoming Department. The welt 
method of bottoming is coming increasingly into 
use because of producing a smooth inside bottom 
of the shoe, and because of the ease with which a 
welt shoe can be repaired after being worn. After 
the lasting operations the shoe is ready to receive 
the outsole. 

*13 



206 The Shoe Industry 

Welting. First the welt which is distinctive of 
this method of shoemaking is attached. The welt 
is a narrow strip of leather so prepared that it may 
be sewed first to the lip of the inner sole and to the 
upper leather and later to the outer sole, no stitching 
passing entirely through the bottom of the shoe as 
in the McKay method. The welt extends in front 
of the heel entirely around the shoe. This process 
was a very difficult one in the days of hand shoe- 
making, but as performed upon a machine it becomes 
simple and rapid. It is claimed, indeed, that this 
particular machine process has been the leading 
factor in the great development of shoe manu- 
facturing in recent times. After this process the 
surplus parts of the lip, upper, and welt are trimmed 
off by the inseam trimming machine. 
s Welt Beating. The next process is welt beating 
upon a machine in which a small hammer with rapid 
strokes beats the welt down evenly at the side of the 
shoe. The insole and the welt are now coated over 
with rubber cement. At the same time the outsole 
receives a coating of cement. 

1 Sole Laying. When this has dried slightly the 
process of sole laying takes place. The sole is put 
in place and pressed firmly upon the shoe and welt 
in the sole laying machine, remaining in the machine 
a sufficient length of time for the cement to set firmly. 
O Rough Rounding. Next comes the trimming of 
the sole and welt so that they will extend a uniform 
distance from the upper leather. This process is 




Operating the U. S. M. Co. Lasting Machine 



207 



The Making Department 209 

called rough rounding and is one of the most im- 
portant, exacting, and arduous processes found in 
the entire factory. A machine gauges the distance 
at which the cutting shall be done from the last, 
cutting usually wider on the outside of the shoe 
than on the inside and reducing the width of the 
shank. In any lot of shoes, large or small, passing 
through the hands of the rough rounder there must 
be tne same variation of margin according to size 
and design. 

The rough rounding machine cuts also a little 
slit or channel along the edge in the bottom of the 
sole. This channel was formerly cut by hand. Its 
purpose is to allow a covering for the stitching 
that follows. 
"H Heel Seat Nailing. The process of rough round- 
ing deals simply with that part of the shoe in front 
of the heel to which the welt has been sewed. The 
heel portion of the outsole is next fastened by nailing 
securely through to the inner sole. The surplus 
leather around the heel is now trimmed off on the 
heel seat rounding machine, which cuts a channel 
also. This channel is opened evenly to provide 
for stitching. 

Sole Sewing. The outsole is now stitched to the 
welt entirely around the shoe upon the outsole 
lockstitch machine, a process very similar to welt 
sewing. This stitching, however, is finer and very 
durable. It shows on the upper side of the welt 
around the finished shoe. 



210 The Shoe Industry 

Channel Laying. The lip of the channel is now 
cemented upon a machine, partly dried, and is 
rolled smoothly and evenly back into place upon the 
channel laying machine, completely covering the 
stitches which would otherwise show on the bottom 
of the shoe. 

Leveling. The shoe is passed beneath a vibrating 
roller under heavy pressure in the automatic sole 
leveling machine. The roller passes completely 
up and down each side of the shoe, canting first 
to the right and then to the left and removing 
every unevenness on the bottom. 

Welt Finishing. The edge of the fore part of the 
shoe was left in a slightly rough condition after the 
process of rough rounding. This roughness is now 
smoothed away upon the trimming machine, which 
has a set of rapidly revolving cutters. The edge 
and welt of the shoe receive a coat of blacking, 
and the stitches showing on the upper side of the 
welt are separated upon a machine so as to present 
an even appearance. The indentations thus made 
are burnished upon a machine. The edge of the 
shoe is burnished upon the edge setting machine 
by means of two rapidly vibrating hot irons. The 
surface of the top lift of the heel is leveled upon the 
top lift sanding machine, and the breast is scoured 
on a rapidly revolving disk. 

Other Finishing Processes. From this point on 
there are various processes of finishing the heel and 
the bottom of the shoe, which may be performed in 




Operating the Goodyear Welt Sewing Machine 



211 



The Making Department 213 

the bottoming department or in a separate finishing 
department. Some of these, such as tip repair- 
ing, are quite separate from the work of the 
bottoming department. The more important of 
the finishing processes may be presented here. 

The heel and the edges of the shoe are blacked or 
covered with the dressing suitable to the leather 
used on shoes other than black, and finished on 
burnishing machines. The bottom of the shoe is 
buffed upon revolving rollers covered with sand- 
paper, to remove the marks of handling in various 
processes. It is then buffed to a finer degree on the 
Naumkeag buffing machine upon a pad of rubber 
covered with fine emery paper, revolving still more 
rapidly than the first buffing machine. The bottom 
of the shoe is now "hard finished" by receiving coats 
of stain or other material, and by polishing. In 
some cases the bottoms are blacked in whole or in 
part, and some receive a dull finish on the forepart, 
while the whole is thoroughly polished upon re- 
volving brushes. 

Positions in the Welt Bottoming Department. 
The more usual positions in the welt bottoming 
department are as follows: 

1. The Superintendent. 

2. Foreman. 

3. Assistant Foreman. 

4. Tack Pullers. 

5. Welters. 

6. Inseam Trimmers. 



214 The Shoe Industry 

7. Welt Scarf ers. 

8. Welt Beaters. 

9. Shank Nailers. 

10. Bottom Fillers. 

11. Welt Cementers. 

12. Sole Cementers. 

13. Sole Layers. 

14. Heel Seat Nailers. 

15. Rough Rounders. 

16. Channel Openers. 

17. Goodyear Stitchers. 

18. Channel Cementers. 

19. Channel Layers. 

20. Wheelers. 

21. Randers. 

22. Levelers. 

23. Heelers. 

24. Sluggers. 

25. Heel Shavers. 
20. Heel Breasters. 

27. Edge Trimmers. 

28. Heel Scourers. 

29. Heel Jointers. 

30. Edge Setters. 

31. Burnishers. 

32. Blackers. 

33. Buffers. 

34. Hard Finishers. 

35. Polishers. 

36. Floor Persons. 




Operating the Goodyear Rough Rounding Machine 



215 



The Making Department 217 

The McKay Bottoming Department. The McKay 
bottoming department is that division in which the 
upper is attached to the sole by a machine which 
sews directly through the outsole, upper leather, 
and insole. The upper parts come to the McKay 
room from the lasting room; the outer soles come 
from the sole leather department, having been kept 
in humidifiers so as to be moist and ready for 
use. 

Processes Connected with the McKay Method. 
First the toes of the uppers, already upon the lasts, 
are buffed upon an emery wheel which grinds off the 
surplus leather and nails, so that the outer sole 
will lie even upon the shoe. The outer sole is then 
"layed" in place and nailed or tacked in the toe, 
shank, and heel upon a machine. The lasts are now 
pulled or withdrawn from the shoe by hand, and 
the McKay stitching process is performed upon the 
McKay machine. This is a very particular and 
exacting process and is found in most shoe factories 
at the present time. For comparison between this 
and other methods the reader is referred again to 
Chapter VII. 

The usual processes following the McKay stitch- 
ing are, Heel seat nailing on a machine, channel 
lifting or opening and cementing, wetting the bot- 
tom of the shoe upon a brush revolving in water, 
channel laying upon a steel roller which by a cor- 
rugated lip draws the channel in smooth, beating 
out the bottom on a machine and by hand to make 



218 The Shoe Industry 

it smooth and give it proper lines, drying, and heel 
attaching. 

Before relasting McKays and sending them on 
to finishing, the bottom lining must be inserted, a 
work generally done by girls. Linings of thin 
leather or leather substitute, which were dinked out 
in the upper cutting department, are selected by 
sizes. The inside of the bottom of the shoe is 
cemented by a brush, and the linings are inserted 
by hand and smoothed down by means of a stick. 
Wooden lasts or "followers" are now inserted upon 
a machine. 

Positions in the McKay Bottoming Department. 
The positions in this department are generally as 
follows : 



1. 


The Superintendent. 


2. 


Foreman. 


3. 


Buffers. 


4. 


Sole Layers. 


5. 


Last Pullers. 


6. 


McKay Stitchers. 


7. 


Heel Seat Nailers. 


8. 


Channel Lifters. 


9. 


Cementers. 


10. 


Bottom Wetters. 


11. 


Channel Layers. 


12. 


Inside Bottom Cementers. 


13. 


Lining Inserters. 


14. 


Lasters. 


15. 


Floor People. 




Operating the Goodyear Stitching Machine 



219 



The Making Department 221 

The Heeling Department. The heel is now at- 
tached to the shoe upon the heeling machine. The 
shoe is placed upon a jack in the machine and an 
arm bearing the nails is swung automatically over 
the heel, driving the nails through the heel, outsole, 
upper leather, and insole, where they are clinched 
upon the inside. 

Blind Nailing. The heads are left extending far 
enough outside the heel to receive the top lift. 
This is made from the best of leather, and is sub- 
jected to great pressure to harden it. Previously 
prepared, and with a coating of glue, it is now placed 
in position, with the shoe still in the machine, and 
driven down over the protruding nails. This is the 
process of "blind nailing." 

Slugging. Short nails, or "slugs," of brass or 
other metal are now driven into the top lift by the 
slugging machine, to increase the wearing qualities 
of the heel. 

Heel Trimming. The top lift is made in the 
exact size of the finished heel, and is a guide for the 
operator of the trimming machine, which by means 
of a rapidly revolving knife cuts away all the sur- 
plus leather on the outside. The breast or front 
is trimmed evenly across on the "heel-breasting" 
machine. The outside of the heel is scoured or 
smoothed by rolls covered with sandpaper, on the 
heel scouring machine. 

Heel trimming, like the rough rounding of the 
sole, is an exacting process, calling for strength and 



222 The Shoe Industry 

skill. It sometimes produces in the operator what 
is called "broken wrist," or a weak wrist, as the 
shoe, held firmly in both hands against the knife 
of the machine, must be turned nearly through an 
entire circle, both turning and twisting the wrist 
joints. When the effect upon the operator be- 
comes marked he usually changes to some other 
process. 

Positions in the Heeling Department. The 
chief positions in this small department are, the 
Superintendent, the foreman, and the operators 
of the nailing, slugging, and trimming ma- 
chines. 

The Turned Shoe Department. The turned shoe 
or slipper is made with an ordinary upper, usually 
of light weight, and with a single sole of flexible 
quality. Soles are prepared or fitted in this depart- 
ment one day in advance of their use. The main 
processes in the preparation of the soles are the 
following : 

The soles are channeled and placed in humidi- 
fiers over night. In the morning the shank is trimmed 
out, the heel scarfed or trimmed off, and the sole 
is moulded into shape. 

Lasting the Turned Shoe. In lasting the sole 
is placed upon the last upside down, and the upper 
is drawn over the last, inside out. The counter is 
put in wrongside out. All parts are tacked care- 
fully in place. 

The sewing of the upper to the sole now takes 




Operating the Sole Leveling Machine 



223 



The Making Department 225 

place upon a special turn shoe machine. Tacks 
are withdrawn and the selvage trimmed off, and a 
small steel shank is sewed in the space between 
the heel and the ball of the front. The last is then 
withdrawn and the shoe is turned by hand over the 
toe upon an iron support. The last is then put 
back in the shoe and the lining smoothed out around 
the heel part, which is then leveled and prepared 
for the heel which is to be added, either of leather, 
leather substitute, or of wood. This is glued, 
clamped on firmly and left to dry, and finished later. 
Usually three nails are inserted to hold it perma- 
nently. A lining or heel piece is inserted for smooth- 
ness. 

Positions in the Turned Shoe Department. The 
usual positions in this department are as follows: 

1. The Superintendent. 

2. Foreman. 

3. Inspector. 

4. Stock Fitter. 

5. Laster. 

6. Stitcher. 

7. Tack Puller. 

8. Trimmer. 

9. Shank Soler. 

10. Second Laster. 

11. Heel Laster. 

12. Leveler. 

13. Finisher. 

14. Heeler. 



226 The Shoe Industry 

15. Cover Sewer, who sews a cover over white 

shoes to keep them clean while passing 
through the various processes of the de- 
partment. 

16. Floor Boys. 

The Standard Screw, Pegged, and Nailed Depart- 
ments. Various kinds of heavy working shoes are 
manufactured by the standard screw method, by 
pegging, or by nailing the outsole and insole to- 
gether, thus fastening the bottom of the shoe to the 
upper. By the first method a wire with screw 
thread upon it is driven through the bottom and 
automatically cut off by the machine, piece after 
piece, rapidly around the bottom. This is practi- 
cally a wire sewing in place of McKay stitching. 
The pegged shoe is made in about the same manner, 
a machine inserting wooden pegs instead of the 
sections of wire. The use of pegs was once very 
general, but is now gradually giving way to other 
methods. Nails when used are generally clinched 
on the inside. These three methods give strong 
and firm but inflexible and heavy bottoms to foot- 
wear. 

The other processes connected with these special 
kinds of footwear are similar to the general processes 
of welt and McKay manufacture. Finishing does 
not, however, call for so high a degree of per- 
fection. 

Aside from the operators of the special machines 
used for inserting the wire screws, pegs, and nails, 




Operating the Heeling Machine 



227 



The Making Department 229 

the positions in general are the same as in the welt 
and McKay departments. 

Work in the Making Department. In the early 
days of American shoe factories the bottoming of 
shoes was quite generally let out to men on con- 
tract, as has been indicated earlier in this volume. 
Such contract work was performed by gangs of men 
who went from factory to factory. And we find the 
gang* system in use to a degree in factories at the 
present time. It is easier, for instance, for several 
men to work together upon a process or group of 
processes involving operations that must be done 
together in a very brief space of time, working at 
one bench or upon a complicated machine. 

This department involves the heaviest and most 
exacting processes of shoe manufacture, and the 
major processes are regularly performed by men, 
who in the main must be strong and active. Boys, 
girls, and women assist in the minor processes and 
in the handling of materials. 

In the bottoming or making room the machines 
are always ranged along the sides of the room, 
next to the windows, so that there may be good 
light for the many intricate operations necessary. 
Shoes in process of making are arranged upon racks 
along the inner spaces of the room. 



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(243) 



Chapter XII 

FINISHING, TREEING, PACKING, AND 
SHIPPING 



(246) 



CHAPTER XII 

Finishing, Treeing, Packing, and Shipping 

Additional Departments. In a large shoe factory 
the magnitude of manufacture calls for separate 
departments of considerable size for the finishing 
and treeing of the shoe, and for the packing and 
shipping of the completed product. There will be 
found in especially large establishments, also, various 
other departments, or even small factories, manu- 
facturing particular supplies or doing particular 
work. Such are departments or factories for the 
manufacture of leather parts of shoes, for the prep- 
aration of accessory materials, and for the provision 
for work that would otherwise have to be given to 
outside companies or individuals. We have already 
spoken of the heel, toe box, and counter depart- 
ments and factories. The second division is seen 
in cases where the great shoe manufacturing cor- 
poration conducts its own sawmill and factories 
for the making of wood shipping cases and paper 
cartons in which shoes are sent out to the trade. 
An example of the third division is the printing de- 
partment or shop now being added to many factories 
because of the great cost of printing the many busi- 
ness forms necessary for office and factory use, and 

247 



248 The Shoe Industry 

because of the continual increase in the output of 
advertising material. 

All such factories, departments, and shops provide 
numerous opportunites for employment according 
to the trades involved, but with little interchange of 
labor between them and the shoe factories except 
where the manufacture of shoe parts is involved. 
Then, of course, it is a matter of employment in a 
subdivision of the shoe industry. 

Finishing. It has already been said that in a 
large shoe manufacturing establishment the finishing 
processes detailed in the preceding chapter would 
constitute a separate department. In a small 
factory, however, the only part of the finishing that 
would be distinctly separate from other operations 
is tip repairing. 

The Tip Repairing Department. In the passage 
of the shoe through the factory we have seen the 
vamp, the linings, the toe box, and the tip brought 
together in the completed toe of the shoe. Some- 
times, also, oiled paper is added as a protection 
against injury in the handling of the shoe. All of 
these parts give a thickness of about one-half inch 
to the toe of the ordinary shoe. In lasting so many 
thicknesses it is especially hard to draw the tip 
evenly over the last without injuring the leather 
of the tip. This danger is considerably increased 
by the use of patent leather, which is easily broken 
or scarred, for tips. The use of patent leather is so 
general that tip repairing is a problem of consider- 



Finishing, Treeing, Packing, Shipping 249 

able magnitude in all factories. In the general 
handling to which a shoe is subjected in passing 
through the various departments of the factory, 
tips are likely to be scratched and broken. In the 
case of ordinary leather scratches, scars, or other 
marks can be quite easily disposed of by rubbing 
down, by hand or upon machine brushes. But 
patent leather, having a varnished surface, is re- 
paired with greater difficulty. If the injury is con- 
siderable the old enamel or varnished surface is 
sandpapered entirely off, and a new coat of varnish 
is applied by hand. This is allowed to dry and is 
polished, giving usually an entirely fresh and perfect 
surface. This work is mainly a hand process, 
usually done by women, though recently a tip 
repairing machine has been introduced in some 
factories. 

Tip repairing calls for careful observation, pains- 
taking application to a process often requiring con- 
siderable time upon a single shoe, deftness of touch, 
and good judgment. 

The Treeing Department. Treeing is the method 
of making the shoe conform perfectly to the shape of 
the last, and of restoring the finish belonging to the 
leather, after its passing through many hands. 
The last is removed in this department, or before 
reaching this department, to allow for the processes 
of treeing. The shoe is first examined for tacks or 
other imperfections inside. Bottom linings or heel 
pads are put in by girls, when this has not been done 

*15 



250 The Shoe Industry 

in the making room. The shoe is then placed upon 
the tree arm, there being several arms revolving 
upon a machine, so that one shoe may be worked 
upon while others are drying. The department is 
sometimes called the treeing and dressing room. 
Nearly every kind of leather or shoe material requires 
a distinct method of handling and of dressing or 
finishing. Dirt or other materials that have ad- 
hered to the surface of the shoe in making are 
removed by a brush which is adapted to the surface 
of the leather, or by washing with different cleaners. 
Then an oil lubricator or dressing is applied to fill 
the pores of the leather. The covers of fabric shoes 
and of shoes made of delicate shades of leather are 
removed by hand, cutting with a knife closely 
around the sole so that no trace of the cover remains 
and no injury results to the shoe. The operator 
may have to restain some leathers as well as to fill 
the pores with oil, so as to bring out the richest 
effect of the surface. There are many special 
processes in various factories, according to particular 
styles of shoe and kinds of finish used. 

Embossing. Then on the bottom of the shoe or 
upon the lining at the top a trade-mark or the name 
of the maker of the shoe is embossed or stamped. 

Ironing. When the surface of the upper has been 
fully restored the shoe is ironed upon the tree to give 
it perfect and permanent form. Rubbing over with 
the warm or hot iron is a very important and careful 
process, and is done regularly by men. 



Finishing, Treeing, Packing, Shipping 251 

Inspecting. Slight repairs not made before the 
processes of treeing are made after it, and the shoe 
is inspected before passing out of the department. 
Shoes intended for samples or display in store win- 
dows have a wooden form placed in them, rather 
than a last, to keep them in shape. 

The "treeing man" should be familiar with the 
nature and tanning of leather, and with the processes 
of shoe making, so that he may correct defects in 
leather or poor workmanship in the earlier processes 
of the factory. 

Positions in the Treeing Department. The posi- 
tions usually found in treeing and dressing are the 
following : 

1. The Superintendent. 

2. Foreman. 

3. Instructor. 

4. Inspectors. 

5. Embossers. 

6. Toe Crease Stampers. 

7. Lacers. 

8. Repairers. 

9. Treeing Men. 

10. Floor Boy. 

11. Cripple Boy. 

The Packing Department. The great advance in 
shoe manufacture during the last half century is 
seen not only by studying machinery and processes, 
but by observing the excellent condition in which 
boots and shoes are sent out to the trade. Before 



252 The Shoe Industry 

the useof speciarcartons,whiclris distinctive of^the 
present day, shoes were tied in bundles or packed 
loose in barrels and boxes, often reaching the 
customers in wrinkled and battered condition. 
Now a single pair, except in the case of heavy and 
cheap J grades, is packed in a pasteboard box or 
carton. 

For packing, shoes are first brushed upon the heels 
and bottoms, inspected, and placed out on tables 
in pairs by sizes. The labels on the ends of the car- 
tons are stamped in a machine with style, stock 
number, size, width, kind of leather, or other dis- 
tinguishing term. Then the shoes are wrapped in 
tissue paper and placed carefully in cartons, which 
are packed securely in wooden or fibre-board cases, 
usually with thirty-six pairs to a case, ready for 
shipment. 

Positions in the Packing Room. The work of 
this room is done mainly by girls and women, and 
the few positions are, the Superintendent, foreman, 
brushers, inspectors, carton stampers, packers, and 
floor girl. 

The Shipping Department. From the packing 
room shoes are sent to the shipping department 
where they are placed in "assembling aisles" in 
alphabetical arrangement, according to the names of 
customers orders and styles. Copies of original 
orders as received by salesmen are kept in the ship- 
ping department, and shoes are checked off upon one 
set as they come from the packing room, another 



Finishing, Treeing, Packing, Shipping 253 

set of orders being used for shipping. The cases of 
shoes are sent out to the freight offices accompanied 
by bills of lading as the time for filling each order 
approaches, and shipment is made so that the goods 
will reach each customer on a specified day. 

Foreign shipments require a great amount of 
detail, since they must have a different form for 
bills jof lading and different weights and measures. 

Large shipments go out by freight, small ones by 
express, and by parcel post. 

After the bills of lading which are to go with ship- 
ments are made out, special tags bearing full par- 
ticulars about each shipment are sent to the book- 
keeping department so that the proper charges may 
be entered in that department. 

Positions in the Shipping Department. The po- 
sitions of the shipping department are as follows: 

1. The Superintendent. 

2. Foreman. 

3. Checkers. 

4. Assemblers. 

5. Men for casing up, sealing, nailing, and stack- 

ing goods. 

6. Truck Boys. 

7. Shippers. 

8. Clerks and Assistants. 



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Chapter XIII 

EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS AND 
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL 



(259) 



CHAPTER XIII 

Employment Conditions and Supplementary 
Material 

The Sex Division of Employees. In a shoe 
factory making both men's and women's shoes of 
the ordinary kinds, substantially the following per- 
centages of labor are found: 

^VEale employees, sixty-nine per cent. 

-Female employees, thirty-one per cent. 

Boys under eighteen years, one-seventh or 
fourteen per cent, of male employees. 

Girls under eighteen years, one-twenty-fifth 
or four per cent, of female employees. 

These percentages may be given as fairly exact 
for the average shoe factory and for the boot and shoe 
industry as a whole. In factories making mostly 
heavy shoes or men's wear, however, the proportion 
of male employees runs somewhat higher than the 
sixty-nine per cent, and that of female employees 
lower than the thirty-one per cent. On the other 
hand, in factories making women's, children's, and 
infants' footwear, there will be found some increase 
in the percentage of female employment with a 
corresponding decrease in the male. 

(261) 



262 The Shoe Industry 

In studying the departments of shoe manufacture 
we have seen that the more difficult processes and 
the operation of heavy machines are given regularly 
to male employees. This is especially true in the 
cutting department, in some divisions of the stitch- 
ing department, in the sole leather department, in 
the gang room, and in treeing. On the other hand, 
the lighter processes and the simpler machines are 
regularly given to girls and women, especially in 
stitching, finishing, dressing, and packing. 

Further statistical information upon employment 
in the shoe industry, in comparison with other 
leading industries, is given in Table XX on page 290. 
\i The Divisions of Employees Among Departments. 
To enable a factory to work as a whole with all 
operatives in all manufacturing departments equally 
busy each day, the division of employees among 
departments must have about the percentages 
following : 

In the cutting room, twelve per cent, of all 
operatives. 

In the stitching room, twenty-seven per cent. 
In the sole leather room, twelve per cent. 
In the gang room, twenty-three per cent. 
In finishing, eight per cent. 
In treeing and dressing, ten per cent. 

Small numbers of employees, making perhaps 
seven or eight per cent., are found in minor depart- 
ments of the factory. 

At the same time the business offices employ from 



Employment Conditions 263 

fifteen to twenty per cent, of the total number of 
people connected with the industry. 
^ Shoe Manufacture Highly Specialized. Shoe 
manufacture has become more and more highly 
specialized in recent years. Each factory can pro- 
duce a larger output with smaller costs when making 
only a single or a few kinds of footwear. The large 
American market has greatly aided in this special- 
ization; an increased trade abroad, in about ninety 
different countries at the present time, makes it 
still more profitable for the American shoemaker 
to devote his plant to a single line of product in the 
assurance that he will find a steady market. We 
find, then, factories, for example, making men's 
heavy work shoes, leg boots, walking shoes, or shoes 
for dress wear; and other factories making foot- 
wear for women, children, and infants, exclusively. 
At the same time we find the long list of factories 
manufacturing special parts and findings. 

Seasons. One of the chief objections to entering 
into shoe manufacture is the fact that it is a sea- 
sonal employment. The busiest seasons are the fall 
and winter; the least busy season is the summer, 
with an average idle period of from three to eight 
weeks, coming usually in or around the month of 
July. As has been said earlier, the progressive shoe 
manufacturers are making great efforts to obtain 
orders far enough in advance, and to study trade 
conditions, so that a year's steady employment may 
be provided for the factory. Large concerns capa- 



264 The Shoe Industry 

ble of handling extensive contracts may do this more 
easily; the small concern with a limited trade must 
adjust its output to its volume of trade and suffer 
usually from an idle season. 

In a few rare cases factories having large contracts 
or accumulations of orders make a twenty-four 
hour day, with three full shifts of employees work- 
ing in eight-hour periods. 

Shoemaking a Trade. Shoemaking is a trade, 
with many specialized divisions. Some of these 
divisions, such as the simpler operations in the 
various rooms, are distinctly unskilled trades; 
others, like cutting, welting, and trimming edges, 
are highly skilled trades. The first kind calls for a 
very brief period of learning, sometimes a few days 
only; the other division includes processes requiring 
in many cases, several years for learning. 

The operator may learn several related processes, 
but in the large factory he remains essentially a 
worker or an expert in one. 

Entering Upon Work in a Shoe Factory. In a 
small shoe establishment, and quite regularly in a 
country town, inexperienced persons may be taken 
in to learn most processes. Persons thus learning 
branches of shoe manufacture quite often enter the 
large factories as experienced operators. In the large 
factories, especially in the great shoe centers, inex- 
perienced persons are taken in only for the minor 
processes, and more often in the stitching than in 
other departments. There is quite a steady move- 



Employment Conditions 265 

ment of the more highly skilled shoe operatives from 
factory to factory, and from one shoe center to 
another. 

Promotion. The operator who can perform several 
processes in shoemaking is usually kept upon the 
process in which his work is most needed at any 
time. Frequently a worker showing a special 
aptitude for an advance process is put forward to 
learn it, and given permanent promotion if he be- 
comes expert in it. There is not, however, such 
a gradation of operations in the departments of the 
shoe factory as to offer promotion regularly or to 
the many. The most conspicuous promotion is that 
of a workman who comes to understand the work 
of a room fully, with ability to direct others, to the 
position of assistant foreman or foreman. 

Securing Skilled Labor. "The desirability of 
securing employees that are skilled in their respec- 
tive branches of work is appreciated in every in- 
dustry, and in none more so perhaps than in the shoe 
industry. The truth of this assertion is evidenced 
by the methods of securing employees in different 
shoe manufacturing centers. 

"In some of these centers shoe manufacturers co- 
operate through their local association in keeping 
records as to the workmanship and character of 
their employees which have some bearing upon 
future employment. In other places each factory 
may have a bulletin board on which it makes known 
the classes of employees that are desired, but in 

*16 



266 The Shoe Industry 

both cases the kind of an operator that is wanted 
is specified, and this in itself is an indication of the 
desire of the concern to engage a skilled employee for 
that particular operation. 

"We are sometimes told by thoughtless persons 
that the amazing improvement in shoe machinery 
that has been witnessed in the last fifty years has 
practically eliminated the skill of the shoe operative. 
It would perhaps be more proper to say that the larger 
use of vastly improved machinery, subdividing the 
labor of shoemaking as it has, has simplified shoe- 
making to the extent that it is much easier to manu- 
facture skilled employees in the shoe factory of today 
than it was in the shoe factory of fifty years ago, 
when it was necessary to teach the shoe operative 
much more of the shoemaking art than he needs to 
know at the present time."* 

Schools and Courses for Shoemaking. In several 
large shoe centers private schools for shoe workers 
have been established. The work upon which 
operators learn usually consists of low grade shoes 
made by the school for factories, on a contract 
basis, or upon shoes manufactured from materials 
of second quality, bought at a low price from 
supply factories or from shoe factories. Persons 
wishing to learn a process of shoemaking are 
taken on rather as helpers at first in that process, 
giving their time and paying a fixed tuition, such as 
thirty or sixty or eighty dollars, without special 

* Superintendent and Foreman, Boston, August 26, 1914. 



Employment Conditions 267 

regard to the time required for learning. The time 
spent in learning, however, may run from one to 
seven or eight months. Operators run the same 
machines, though sometimes second hand, as are 
used in the shoe factory, and generally become 
capable of entering factories as fairly efficient 
workers. 

A few towns and cities, in co-operation with shoe 
and leather manufactures, have established courses 
in shoe and leather subjects in the public school 
system. These courses, however, are mainly at- 
tended by persons already working in factories and 
leather houses and seeking additional training to 
increase their efficiency and earning capacity. 

The instructors are superintendents and experts 
in the trade who have been given special training 
for teaching. The establishment of such courses 
marks a great advance in the shoe and leather 
industries. 

Superintendents and foremen sometimes conduct 
classes at the factory for employees under them. 

Quotation from a Report Upon Industrial Educa- 
tion in Shoe Manufacture. The report of the Com- 
mittee on Industrial Education of the National 
Boot and Shoe Manufacturers' Association, at the 
annual convention of the association in New York 
on January 13, 1915, contains the following: 

"The subject of industrial education in the 
shoe manufacturing industry, which was referred 
to the undersigned Committee, is in our opinion 



268 The Shoe Industry 

a matter of great importance to our trade — so 
important indeed that, disturbed by the prevail- 
ing business conditions, in common with the 
other manufacturers in our country, we have 
been unable to give to it the careful investigation 
that it deserves. This report, therefore, may be 
considered as merely one of progress, designed 
to lead to a broader investigation of the subject 
later. 

"That there is need of higher efficiency, based 
on a broader knowledge of, and a greater en- 
thusiasm for, the work in which they are engaged 
on the part of the employees in our American 
shoe factories, and especially the young begin- 
ners in the industry, is sufficiently obvious to re- 
quire no argument. 

"This same need has been recognized in many 
other manufacturing industries, not only in this 
country, but in many foreign countries, and in 
the case of several of the latter notable progress 
has been made during the last ten or fifteen years. 

"We therefore find that not only is industrial 
education of various grades being generally 
carried out in the older countries, like England, 
France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Switzer- 
land, and Denmark, but that even the great 
Orient countries, just now awakening from 
their centuries of conservatism, and incidentally 
opening up encouraging vistas of future trade 
opportunities for our United States manufact- 
urers — China, Japan, and India — are also ser- 
iously taking up this question of higher efficiency 
in industry. Canada, one of the most progress- 
ive of all the world's countries, has established a 
National Commission for the investigation of 



Employment Conditions 269 

this question, and its report will be awaited with 
much interest by the friends of modern educa- 
tion. 

"The more active campaign along this line in 
the United States has extended over the last ten 
years, and already has brought forth some valu- 
able results. At the present time the National 
Society for the Promotion of Industrial Edu- 
cation is making an exhaustive national survey 
of* the field, somewhat similar to that under- 
taken by Canada; and naturally the conclusions 
that may be reached by this organization will 
have a far-reaching influence on the future of 
industrial education. 

"In so far as our American shoe industry is 
concerned we find that some excellent prelim- 
inary work already has been accomplished by 
one of our leading organizations, the New 
England Shoe and Leather Association. 

"This Association had the merits of the Ger- 
man and English system of continuation, or 
part-time, industrial instruction brought to its 
attention by representatives of the Boston 
School Committee, and arranged to co-operate 
with that Committee in the establishment in 
1910 of what we understand was the first shoe 
and leather continuation school in the United 
States. 

"The first class brought together numbered 
thirty-nine pupils, representing twenty-nine dif- 
ferent concerns in various branches of the allied 
shoe and leather trade, mainly boys and young 
men between the ages of fifteen and twenty, 
employed in offices, warehouses, and manufac- 
turing departments, etc., of the shoe factories, 



270 The Shoe Industry 

tanneries, and other establishments. Since that 
time, there have been graduated from this school 
more than two hundred pupils, each of whom 
has received an official certificate of his tech- 
nical ability, and in this way there has been laid 
a splendid foundation for the larger scheme of 
industrial education that is now being consid- 
ered by the Association. 

"The working method of this Boston Shoe 
and Leather Continuation School Class, briefly, 
is the holding of a series of two-hour sessions on 
two afternoons a week, covering a period of 
twelve weeks. 

"The School Committee provides the class- 
room and the instructor, who, of course, has 
specialized in this particular branch of in- 
dustry; and the Association and the trade it 
represents co-operates by furnishing competent 
lecturers, and other experts, who from time to 
time give the pupils formal or informal talks on 
the subjects in which they are experts. 

"Incidentally various trips of inspection are 
made to nearby shoe factories, tanneries, and 
other plants, the result being that the boys not 
only acquire a broad idea of the fundamentals of 
tanning and shoemaking, together with its rami- 
fications of foreign-trade extension, advertising, 
and general efficiency, but, what perhaps is as 
important as anything, they graduate with an 
interest and enthusiasm for their chosen voca- 
tion that will mean more than half the battle 
for them in their future life. 

"This lack of real interest on the part of so 
many young beginners in our industry, which 
springs largely from the existing narrow vision 



Employment Conditions 271 

of their work that lies before them, in any one 
department of it, is one of the greatest handi- 
caps to both the youths and to the manufacturer 
who employs them; and if the continuation 
school did nothing more than inspire them with 
a real interest in what they are doing day by day 
for a livelihood, it would well repay all that it 
costs. 

"There is no charge for tuition in the Boston 
Shoe and Leather Continuation School, except 
that non-resident pupils are charged a nominal 
fee, so that the only expense entailed is the four 
hours or so per week of the pupils' time that the 
employer donates to the good cause. 

"In conclusion your Committee would 
strongly recommend: 

"First. — The establishment of shoe and leather 
continuation schools, similar to the Boston 
School, in every shoe manufacturing city and 
town in the United States that is in a position 
to support one, in this way possibly laying a 
foundation for a broader scheme of industrial 
education in the trade. 

"Second. — That the National Boot and Shoe 
Manufacturers' Association establish a Standing 
Committee on Industrial Education to make 
a careful survey of the question and report to 
each annual meeting; and 

"Third. — That the Association co-operate in 
every feasible way with the National Society 
for the Promotion of Industrial Education." 

The Shoe Superintendent. The superintendent 
of a shoe factory or of a department or room must be 
first of all a manager. He need not necessarily have 



272 The Shoe Industry 

exact knowledge of processes, but he must know 
much of resources, materials, equipment, employees, 
and of methods of efficiency and improvement in 
employment conditions. He must be able to work 
through subordinates and yet keep a firm and help- 
ful hand on the activities of manufacture. 

The superintendent usually comes to his position 
from the business side of the industry. Young 
men are trained for this work in some factories by a 
period in office service, of from six months to several 
years, followed by service in the factory long enough 
to make them familiar with the general features of 
manufacture. 

The superintendent may be a member of the 
firm or corporation, a stockholder, or simply an 
employed officer. His salary, as in other great lines 
of manufacture in present times, may vary from some 
hundreds of dollars in a small factory or department 
to many thousands of dollars in the great corpor- 
ation. 

The Shoe Foreman. The shoe foreman, on the 
other hand, rises from the bench or is promoted from 
the machine. He must have intimate knowledge of 
processes and be able to train employees in them; 
he must be able to select operators for his depart- 
ment and to make their work efficient; he must be a 
master of method, of handling men at work, and of 
maintaining discipline in his room, tactful, firm, 
friendly with all, yet not forfeiting their obedience 
and respect. 



Employment Conditions 273 

The position of the foreman is exacting. He 
stands between the superintendent and the operator 
and is responsible for the work of his department. 
He must keep every employee occupied and the work 
passing through on schedule time. His pay is usually 
about the same as that of the most expert operators 
in his room, varying from $15.00 upwards a week, 
reaching $50.00 or $60.00 in some cases. 

Forewomen are employed in divisions of the 
stitching room or in small departments in which 
the employees are mostly girls or women. 

The superintendents and foremen of a factory 
usually hold weekly meetings for the discussion of 
topics of mutual interest and helpfulness. 

Assistant superintendents and foremen receive 
salaries graded below the amounts given, accord- 
ing to the responsibility and service demanded. 

There is considerable change of foremen among 
shoe factories, more, probably, than of other officers 
or employees. In every shoe journal advertise- 
ments like the following are constantly appearing: 

"POSITION WANTED as foreman of sole 
leather room. Experience on welts, turns, and 
McKays, and can operate all machines. Also, 
expert on new economy insole. Best of refer- 
ences. Address, , care of American Shoe- 
making." 

The Quality Man and the Quantity Man. Some 
factories have, in addition to superintendent and fore- 
men, a person whose special duty is to examine all 



274 The Shoe Industry 

work being done in a department for its quality of 
workmanship and another person who observes all 
work for its quantity, so that each room is held up 
to the standard set by the factory both in grade and 
volume of product. These persons are practically 
assistants to the foremen, yet responsible to the 
factory management only. With them, the fore- 
man can give his time more fully to training and 
supervising employees. On the other hand such a 
multiplication of supervisors, — superintendent, fore- 
man, and inspectors, — is likely to bring uncertainty 
as to authority and confusion of oversight. 

The quality and quantity men have about the 
same rank and pay as foremen. 

The Efficiency Engineer. Some large concerns 
employ a person skilled in efficiency methods. His 
work in the factory consists in studying methods 
and processes so that the best results may be ob- 
tained with the least expenditure of time, with the 
least wear of machinery, and with the most econ- 
omical use of materials possible. When his duties 
deal with the operations of manufacture he is usually 
called an efficiency engineer. He is a specialist in 
work belonging more naturally to the foreman, and 
attended to by the foreman or his assistant in the 
smaller establishments. 

The efficiency engineer must have a very accurate 
knowledge of the nature of machine operations, of 
the qualities of materials, of the factory schedule, of 
the mental and physical qualities of the operative, 



Employment Conditions 275 

of the effect of monotony and routine, and of the 
value of encouragement and incentive for the 
worker. 

nJ The Monotony of Shoemaking. Like those of 
many other kinds of manufacture the machine 
processes of shoemaking are monotonous. The hand 
processes are in general of a lighter and less wearing 
nature, and are not so distinctly characterized by 
monotony. Operating an automatic machine, how- 
ever, upon which materials or parts of shoes must be 
placed and controlled in an unvarying time period, is 
depressing and wearing for the operator. In a sense 
he becomes a part of the machine until he may 
almost seem to have little mental or physical activity 
aside from it. 

There are several possible offsets to monotony in 
shoe manufacture. One is an incentive to speed, 
which, while in itself a wearing element for the 
workman, has a speeding up effect upon him in the 
case of payment by piece. He works faster, and 
in many cases accomplishes a full day's work in 
less than a full day's time, thus gaining for him- 
self some hours of the working day to spend out- 
doors or at home. It is a common thing to enter 
the gang room of a shoe factory, for instance, to- 
wards night and find some machines idle because 
the operators upon them have performed their work 
on the lots of shoes passing through the room on that 
day. 

A second offset is found in the advantage to the 



276 The Shoe Industry 

operator of learning to run more than one machine, 
so that at times he may be transferred from one to 
another. 

It is a relief and often a pleasure to the mind of 
the worker to have to handle leathers and other shoe 
materials of high grade and finish. 

Another means of lessening monotony lies in the 
operator's being able to care for his own machine, 
to understand its parts, or to suggest improvement 
upon it. This kind of ability, which is much sought 
after in the shoe factory, often leads to promotion 
and to work upon more important machines. 

Quotation Upon Efforts in Some Factories to 
Lessen Monotony. The following quotation indi- 
cates the tendency of the present time to ameliorate 
the effects of monotony: 

'Tn some German factories the routine of the 
day is broken by a recess in the morning and 
in the afternoon. In a western factory, which 
makes supplies for the shoe trade, there is a 
morning and afternoon recess for employees. 
Lunch is served during the recess. Some of the 
employees work as waitresses. In a number of 
shoe factories there are now rest rooms for 
women. 

"In some high-class American manufacturing 
establishments, the grounds about the factories 
are made attractive. When an employee looks 
out the window, he sees a cheerful prospect. 
This breaks the monotony of his task. It is 
possible that the American shoe factory system 



Employment Conditions 277 

requires too steadfast an application of the 
worker to his machine. The enthusiasm with 
which shoemakers demand factory legislation, 
particularly short working hours, is a sign that 
this is so. Perhaps shoemakers would be more 
steady and more efficient if they had ten or 
fifteen minutes of recess in the morning and in 
the afternoon. The idea may seem radical, 
perhaps preposterous; but it's pretty certain 
that something will be done the next few years 
to break up the monotony of the task of 
shoemaking."* 

Social Service in the Shoe Factory. Some large 
factories conducted under modern conditions take 
measures for the occupational and social welfare of 
their employees. They provide classes for training, 
in some features, at least, of the work of the factory; 
separate rooms for rest and recreation, dancing, and 
social clubs for male and female employees; libraries 
equipped with books and magazines relating to shoe 
manufacture, and with general literature; restau- 
rants conducted on a co-operative basis, or at low 
rates, so that employees may afford to patronize 
them; medical attendance and equipment; and some- 
times elaborate parks and playgrounds. 

Quotation from a Government Study of Social 
Service. The best summary of social service, or 
welfare work, as it has long been called, in 
the shoe industry, is to be found in the report 
upon Employers' Welfare Work, published by the 

* American Shoemaking, Boston, October 18, 1913. 



278 The Shoe Industry 

Bureau of Labor Statistics at Washington in 1913, 
as follows: 

"The Shoe Co., 



has done much to improve working conditions 
for its 5,000 employees. The huge factory is 
built in the form of a hollow square, so that all 
the workrooms are well lighted. On the top 
floor, where the shoe leather is cut, the roof has 
saw-tooth skylights to increase the light. The 
ventilation throughout the building is admirable, 
and every effort is made to keep down dust. The 
lavatories are very sanitary and clean. Indi- 
vidual lockers of perforated iron are placed 
about in the workrooms near the machines, and 
are turned over to employees on their making a 
small deposit — enough to cover the cost of the 
key. There is a check-room for umbrellas and 
wet garments. Separate elevators are installed 
to transport the women employees to the upper 
floors. The company has a lunch counter for the 
employees, where food is sold at cost. Em- 
ployees who bring their lunches eat them in the 
workrooms. 

"Apart from good workroom conditions the 
company conducts recreation work — the name 
it gives the usual welfare work. The ground 
around the building has been converted into a 
noonday-rest park for the employees, with a 
beautiful, trim, green lawn and flowers. There 
is besides a roof garden covering over half of 
the roof space. Part of this is reserved for 
women and part for men, with separate stair- 
ways leading to each section. A dance hall 
for women open at noon and on special oc- 



Employment Conditions 279 

casions in the evening, a pool room and bowling 
alleys for men, open every evening after work- 
ing hours until ten o'clock, give the much- 
needed amusement. The men pay a small fee 
for the use of the tables and the alleys. A 
handsomely furnished reading room, with at- 
tractive ferns and flowers from the company's 
greenhouse, has been opened to the employees. 
There is a branch station of the City Public 
Library here, besides books owned by the com- 
pany and numerous weekly and monthly 
periodicals. 

"A woman physician, constantly in at- 
tendance, has the medical care of the employees 
under her supervision. There are rest rooms 
and an emergency hospital, with a nurse regu- 
larly employed, in the building. Twice a week 
an oculist spends the forenoon at the factory 
and may be consulted free by the employees. 
He fits them with glasses at very reduced prices. 

"The company, with the aid of employees' 
dues, maintains the Relief Fund Department. 
Out of this fund, sick, accident, and death 
benefits are paid. There is at present over 
$5,000 in the treasury. The dues are ten cents 
each week for adults and five cents for employees 
under twenty years of age, and they are de- 
ducted from wages by the paymaster's de- 
partment. In case of sickness or accident the 
members receive $7 and $3.50 a week. No 
member can draw benefits longer than seven 
weeks in one year. Benefits do not become 
due until the member has been incapacitated 
one week, except in case of severe injury. At 
death $100 or $50 is paid the beneficiaries of 



280 The Shoe Industry 

the deceased, according to the amount of the 
weekly dues. A medical examiner is employed 
to report upon the condition of disabled members 
and to decide upon the members' claims for bene- 
fits. The administration of the relief fund is 
entirely in the hands of the company, and all 
the receipts of the fund are held by the com- 
pany in trust for the relief department." 

General Sanitary Conditions Observed in Boot 
and Shoe Factories.* The general sanitary con- 
ditions, dangers, and injurious processes in shoe 
factories have been clearly presented in the report 
of the Massachusetts State Board of Health for 
1912, upon the Hygiene of the Boot and Shoe In- 
dustry in Massachusetts. As this State has always 
been the center of the industry in this country, and 
as its factories, some six hundred in number, are 
typical of the American shoe factories, the facts 
presented in this report may be considered fairly 
typical of the industry at the present time. The 
following is taken from the report: 

"The construction, location and interior con- 
ditions of the shoe factories of Massachusetts 
vary so widely, even in the same community, 
that it is difficult to formulate general state- 
ments which would be applicable to all of them. 
Not a few of these factories are located in small 
country towns and are operated by employees 
descended from generations of shoemakers. 



* Hygiene of the Boot and Shoe Industry in Massachusetts State Board of 
Health, 1912. 



Employment Conditions 281 

These factories are generally isolated and, be- 
cause of the absence of neighboring structures, 
quite well lighted. On the other hand, in the 
cities, where all available space is utilized, the 
buildings are at times crowded together, im- 
pairing the lighting conditions of the workrooms. 
It should be remembered, however, that, unlike 
the textile industry, the operatives in shoe factor- 
ies work at machines or at benches placed along 
the sides of the rooms near the windows. The 
only exception to this may be found in the 
stitching rooms, where the operatives work in 
all parts of the room. This room, however, 
was as a rule found well lighted in all estab- 
lishments visited. 

"It is to be noted that the modern buildings 
constructed for the shoe industry have been so 
placed that neighboring structures cannot shut 
out natural illumination. This feature of con- 
struction has proved a valuable asset to those 
who have constructed these buildings. Note 
has already been made of the use of electricity 
as an artificial illuminant. 

"The laws of Massachusetts require that all 
factories be kept clean and well ventilated, and 
these laws are well observed. 

"The odor of leather is inseparable from the 
art of making shoes, as is the odor of wool and 
of cotton in the textile industry. 

"One of the most vexing problems that has 
arisen in the inspection of shoe factories has 
been the maintenance of proper toilet facilities. 
This question, by no means common to the shoe 
industry, can only be met through repeated 
inspections and the education of the manu- 

17* 



282 The Shoe Industry 

facturer. It is not that the manufacturer is 
not willing or does not desire to maintain proper 
toilet facilities, but he is oftentimes careless 
and leaves this part of the work to others who 
fail in their duty. A decided improvement in 
these conditions has, however, been noted." 

Conditions in 483 Factories, as to Light, Ven- 
tilation, and Water-closets: 



Light: 
Excellent 


30 


Good .... 


441 


Moderately bad 
Distinctly bad 


. . 2 
. . 10 




483 


Ventilation : 




Excellent 


7 


Good .... 


468 


Moderately bad 
Distinctly bad 


. . 3 
. . 5 




483 


Water-closets : 




Excellent 


6 


Good .... 


415 


Moderately bad 
Distinctly bad . 


. . 7 
. . 55 



483 

For further information on health conditions in 
shoe manufacture, the reader is referred to the re- 
port from which the preceding quotation has been 



Employment Conditions 283 

made. In that report he will find an exhaustive 
discussion, with numerous diagrams, of the injurious 
features of the occupation. There is danger in 
operating most machines, which can, however, be 
avoided with due care on the part of the operator; 
there is danger, also, from the fumes of naphtha, 
from cement used in the stitching room and making 
roomj and while dust removers are in general use, 
under the compulsion of state legislation, there is 
considerable menace to the health from dust which 
is produced by nearly all processes of work upon 
the bottoms of shoes, such as edge trimming, bottom 
scouring, buffing, and bottom finishing. 

Piece and Time Payment. Two-thirds, or about 
sixty-six per cent, of the processes of boot and shoe 
manufacture, are paid for on a piece basis, usually 
at a fixed rate per dozen pairs. Such processes are 
those in which good work can be done at high rate 
of speed, and in which the possibility of increased 
earnings produces a larger volume of work from 
the shoe operator. On the other hand, where 
accuracy and care are required, as in the cutting 
room, and where work is of a routine nature, as in 
shipping, pay rests upon a time basis. 

The Best Paying Processes. Some of the 
best paying processes in the factory are, cutting, 
stitching, lasting, wiping in, welting, rounding, 
trimming, and edge setting. The pay in these 
processes ranges from $15.00 to $35.00 or more per 
week. 



284 The Shoe Industry 

Wages and Variation in Employment. Wages 
have been given in statistics at the ends of the 
chapters on factory departments. Additional fig- 
ures are presented in the following tables, and pay 
is so associated with variation in employment that 
the two are properly treated together. The material 
here given is drawn from "Wages and Hours of Labor 
in the Boot and Shoe Industry: 1907 to 1914," 
United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, Wash- 
ington, 1915. 

Following are explanatory statements from the 
report: 

"This report, based on information obtained 
from representative establishments, shows the 
full-time weekly earnings, the full-time hours of 
labor per week, and the rates of wages (or 
earnings) per hour in the principal occupations 
of the boot and shoe industry of the United 
States. Figures relating to full-time hours of 
labor per week and rates of wages (or earnings) 
per hour are presented for the years 1907 to 
1914, inclusive, and for full-time weekly earn- 
ings for the years 1910 to 1914, inclusive. 

"In addition, this report presents material 
relating to the variations in the amount of em- 
ployment furnished by this industry in the year 
ending in February, 1914. 

"Earlier reports of this bureau have pre- 
sented wages and hours of labor in the industry 
from 1890 to 1913. 

"Summarized briefly, the average full-time 
weekly earnings of the employees in this indus- 



Employment Conditions 285 

try in 1914 were the same as in 1913, eight 
per cent higher than in 1912, six per cent higher 
than in 1911, and nine per cent higher than in 
1910. 

'"The average full-time hours of labor per week 
in 1914 were one per cent lower than in 1913, 
two per cent lower than in 1912, and three per 
cent lower than in 1911 or 1910. 

"The average rates of wages (or earnings) 
per'hour in 1914 were one per cent higher than 
in 1913, nine per cent higher than in 1912, ten 
per cent higher than in 1911, and twelve per 
cent higher than in 1910. Owing to the reduction 
of hours, the increase in full-time weekly earn- 
ings between 1910 and 1914 was not so much 
as in rates of wages per hour. 

"A summary of the rates of wages and hours 
of labor in 1914 in the principal occupations 
of the industry is presented in the table fol- 
lowing." 

"In this table it is seen that in 1914 the average 
full-time weekly earnings of males engaged in 
the industry, represented by twenty-seven 
specific occupations, varied from $15.37 for 
assemblers to $27.68 for Goodyear welters. 

"The average full-time weekly earnings of 
females in 1914, represented by ten specific 
occupations, varied from $9.12 for treers or 
ironers, hand, to $13.14 for vampers." 

The average earnings of shoe factory employees, 
as given in the census, vary from about $375.00 per 
year to about $530.00 per year, according to local 
conditions in the different shoe manufacturing states. 



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288 



The Shoe Industry 



The accompanying graphic chart is based upon 
the percentages of figures gathered from eighty- 
three representative establishments throughout the 
country. 



APR. MAY JUNE JULY 



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Variations in Number of Employees, Total Pay Rolls, and 
Biweekly Earnings Per Employee* 

In some establishments the regular pay-roll 
period covers two weeks. Of this twelve-day work- 
ing period the factories whose number of employees 
and pay roll were the basis of the preceding chart, 
were in operation 11.4 days. This was in the pro- 
portion of ninety-five per cent, of the working days 
of the year ending in February, 1914, or 48.4 weeks, 
leaving the equivalent of an average idle period of 
3.6 weeks. 

It will be observed by the chart that the number 
of employees does not vary greatly throughout the 

* Wages and Hours of Labor, 1907 toil914 — Boots and Shoes. TJ. S. Depart- 
ment of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. 



Employment Conditions 289 

year from the normal of one hundred per cent., but 
that the pay roll and earnings do vary considerably, 
according to seasons, being highest in March, 
August, December, the latter part of January, and 
February, and lowest in April, July, September, 
October, and the early part of January. In the 
busy season individual earnings are at a maximum; 
in the dull season, with fewer hours, they are at a 
minimum. , 

Sex and Age Distribution of Wage Earners in the 
United States by Leading Industries: 1909. Table 
XX shows, for the forty-three leading industries, 
the number and percent, of distribution, by age and 
sex, of wage earners as reported for December 15, 
or the nearest representative day. It does not 
include salaried persons. As a means of judging 
the true importance of the several industries as em- 
ployers of labor, the average number employed for 
the entire year is also given in each case, this number, 
in the case of seasonal industries, being much smaller 
than the number on the representative day. The 
per cent, of distribution for all industries combined, 
based on the average number employed, is also 
presented. 

In all industries combined, seventy-eight per cent, 
of the average number of wage earners were males 
sixteen years of age or over, 19.5 per cent, females 
sixteen years of age or over, and 2.5 per cent, chil- 
dren under the age of sixteen. 

The industries for which the largest proportions 



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292 The Shoe Industry 

of males sixteen years of age or over are shown are 
those in which the work is of a nature requiring 
considerable physical strength or a high degree of 
skill. 

The proportion of women and children, naturally 
is larger in those industries in which the processes 
require dexterity rather than strength. 

The importance of the shoe industry as a field of 
employment, in comparison with the other staple 
industries, may be seen by this table. 

The average number of wage earners employed 
in the industry during the year is 93.7 per cent, of 
the total number employed on the day taken by 
the Census Department as properly representative. 
Of those sixteen years of age or over, 62.6 per 
cent, are males, and 33.3 per cent, are females. 
The percentage under sixteen is 4.1 of the whole 
number. 

The Shoe Repairing Industry. Besides the repair 
work done by the individual shoe cobbler in every 
community, repairing has become an important and 
well organized shop industry in recent years. A 
brief and comprehensive statement of this develop- 
ment is the following, from American Shoemaking 
for June 12, 1915: 

"The industry of repairing shoes has grown 
swiftly in the last few years, and now is of such 
size that it may be recognized as a special 
branch of the great shoe industry. There are 
about 45,000 shops in this line, and they do a 



Employment Conditions 293 

business of about $100,000,000 annually. Be- 
sides there are many retail stores that have 
repair departments. Of the 45,000 shoe repair- 
ing shops, about 18,000 are equipped with 
machinery. The machinery of the modern 
repair shop corresponds to that of the factory, 
save that it is simplified. Necessarily, it is 
simple because it often must be operated by 
unskilled workers, or at least by workers who 
have had scant experience in operating shoe 
machinery. Commonly, the machines are all 
set on one motor-drive shaft, along one side of 
the repair shop. There is a lock-stitch machine 
at the head of the shaft. This machine has 
about 260 parts. It is easy of adjustment, and it 
is capable of good all-around work, such as 
changing quickly from a woman's flexible sole 
shoe to a boy's stiff-soled shoe. It will stitch 
anywhere from four to sixteen stitches to the 
inch. Along the shaft there are machines for 
finishing the sole after it is sewed on. Among 
these machines are levelers, sanders, trimmers, 
edge setters, stitch cleaners, burnishing rolls 
and polishing brushes. Besides there are tool 
boxes, shelves for the work, and fans. 

"The largest of the modern shoe repairing 
shops handle from 60,000 to 70,000 pairs of 
shoes a year. They employ from twenty-five to 
thirty-five men. They use a tag system, some- 
thing like that of the regular factories. They 
subdivide the work. In the small shops, one or 
two men may do all the work. One man may 
run all the machines on the shaft, operating 
one after the other. Or, seven men may work 
at one time on the machines on one of the 



294 The Shoe Industry 

longest of the shafts, say one of the twenty-two- 
foot shafts. 

"The main thing in the modern shoe repairing 
business is to build up patronage. Salesman- 
ship is as necessary to success in it as is good 
workmanship. Somebody must go out and 
convince customers that they should have 
their shoes re-soled, or otherwise repaired. 
This selling work may be carried on in big 
cities, small cities, in towns, or out in the 
country. 

"In the business district of one large city some 
bootblacks put some repair machines in their 
back shop. One of them went among the offices 
of the neighborhood asking for shoes to be 
repaired. He offered to give tickets good for 
six free shines with every pair of shoes that he 
re-soled. By this means a repair business was 
built up among occupants of the offices suffi- 
cient to keep four men employed. Besides, 
the shoe shining business nourished. 

'Tn the small cities and towns, the repair 
men send agents in autos, or on motorcycles, 
along the highways, to call at door after door 
and collect shoes to be repaired and returned. 
In some western communities the steam laun- 
dries have started shoe departments, and their 
wagons collect shoes to be shined or repaired, 
and to be returned with the regular basket of 
laundry. 

"The rapid increase in the repair business 
has probably cut into the sale of new shoes. 
But it has opened a new field for enterprising 
men in the starting of repair shops, and in selling 
goods to repair shops." 



Employment Conditions 295 

Earnings in the Repair Shop. In the small 
shop, employing few workers, and doing mostly 
hand repairing, the earnings may vary from two 
to five dollars or more a day. In the large shop, 
in which repair work is done mainly by machinery, 
the operative earns about the same as he would 
in the same processes in the shoe factory. Employ- 
ment in repairing is fairly steady through the year 
in most communities, but it is somewhat reduced 
in the large town or city during the summer season. 

The Shoe Factory Chemist. There are numer- 
ous chemical companies which produce the materials 
used in tanning leathers and in finishing shoes. In 
recent years, however, some large shoe factories 
have drawn chemists from such establishments or 
from other sources to work steadily in the factory. 
The duties of such chemists are twofold : To examine 
all leathers purchased to see that they have been 
properly tanned and cared for, and to examine all 
finishing materials, to see that they are of the right 
quality. A few factories have laboratories in which 
the chemist makes finishing materials from formulas 
which can be purchased or from his own or the fac- 
tory formula. 

The salary of the shoe factory chemist, whose 
service is of high value in shoe manufacture, ranges 
from $20 or $25 a week upwards. 



Chapter XIV 

AN EXPLANATION OF THE TERMS 
USED IN SHOEMAKING 



(297) *18 



CHAPTER XIV 

An Explanation of the Terms used in 
Shoemaking 



The Need of Knowing These Terms. For an 
intelligent reading or study of factory departments 
and processes it will be found necessary to know 
the meaning of the chief technical terms used in 
connection with leather and shoe manufacture. 
An explanation of a process in popular language 
only would prevent an exact and clear understand- 
ing of its nature. It is well to describe industry 
to one who wishes to enter it, either temporarily or 
as a life occupation, in such a way as to show it in 
its real setting and to use "shop language" as far 
as may be necessary to a right presentation of it. 
One should, if possible, see a machine in operation 
and hear the workman who operates it explain the 
working of the machine. The language of the trade 
is simple but expressive, and not at all difficult to 
understand. Throughout the pages of this book 
processes and machines are spoken of in technical 
terms and explained in popular language, so as to 
give the reader who may not be able to visit the 
factory an accurate and helpful picture of modern 
shoemaking. Terms relating mainly to leather are 

(299) 



300 The Shoe Industry 

given in Chapter V on Leather. Herewith, in 
Chapter XIV, is presented an explanation of the 
more common terms used in shoemaking. 

Acid-tanned. Tanned by a mineral acid, instead 
of by a vegetable substance such as the bark of 
certain trees and plants. 

Adjustment. The fastening by which the shoe is 
adjusted to the foot, such as button, strap and 
buckle, webbing or lacing. 

Aloft. (See "Stitched Aloft"). 

Anatomic. Referring to the conformity of the 
shoe to the natural shape of the foot. 

Arch. The bony framework of the foot between 
the heel and the toes. The "broken arch" is a 
settling of this part of the foot due to a yielding 
of the muscles and ligaments. An "arch-support" 
is a mechanical contrivance placed in the shoe 
beneath the arch of the foot to keep it in its natural 
position. The term arch is used also for the cor- 
responding portion of the shoe bottom. 

Assembling. Putting together the various parts of 
the shoe as they come from separate departments 
of the factory. It includes the tacking of the 
inner sole to the last, inserting the toe box and 
counter of the shoe, and putting the upper part 
of the shoe on the last. 

Backstay. A strip of leather covering and strength- 
ening the back seam of a shoe on the outside. 

Back Strap. The strap or loop by which the shoe 
is pulled on the foot. 

Bal. An abbreviation of Balmoral, the original 
English name for the shoe. A front-laced shoe of 



The Terms Used in Shoemaking 301 

medium height, as distinguished from shoes ad- 
justed by other fastenings, and also from other 
patterns of shoes, such as Blucher or Oxford. 

Ball. The fleshy part of the foot back of the toes, 
or the corresponding part of the shoe or of the 
last. 

Beading. Folding in the skived edges of the upper 
leather; or making an impression by a wheel 
around the sole of the shoe above the heel. Fre- 
quently called "seat wheeling." Sometimes re- 
ferring to the beads placed on the vamps of 
women's slippers. 

Beating Out. The term used for leveling the bot- 
tom of the shoe. 

Bellows Tongue. A wide folding tongue sewed to 
the sides of the top for the purpose of making it 
water tight, as in the case of heavy shoes for 
working or tramping. 

Belting. That part of bark tanned cowhide, rubber, 
or canvas used for machinery belts. 

Bench-Made. Applying to shoes made by hand at 

the cobbler's bench. 
Bend. The main or best portion of a side of 

leather. 
Blackball. A mixture of grease and lamp-black 

used by hand shoe workers to polish the edges of 

soles and heels. 
Blacking the Edge. Dyeing the edge of the sole 

or welt after the shoe has passed through the 

making room. 
Blind Eyelet. An eyelet inserted on the inner side 

of the eyelet facing, the hole on the outer side 

being left raw-edged. 



302 The Shoe Industry 

Blocking. The cutting of a sole into rough or 
approximate shape, suitable for rounding. Also 
cutting top or vamp into form suitable for the use 
of the pattern. 

Blucher. The name of a high shoe or half boot 
originated by Field Marshall Blucher of the 
Prussian Army in the time of the first Napoleon. 
Its distinguishing feature is the extension of the 
quarters forward to lace across the tongue. The 
name now applies to any shoe having this ex- 
tension. 

Boot. A term usually and properly restricted to 
high-cut foot wear with tongue of firm leather, 
and sometimes laced, as in hunting boots. Form- 
erly high footwear with no fastening. Often re- 
stricted to women's high-cut shoes. 

Bottom Filling. The filler for the low space in the 
bottom, between outer and inner sole, in the fore 
part of the shoe, as ground cork or tarred felt. 

Bottom Finishing. The final polishing, buffing, and 
other processes applied to the bottom of a com- 
pleted shoe. 

Bottom Scouring. Sandpapering the parts of the 
sole in front of the heel. 

Box. A reinforcement placed in the toe of a shoe 
to preserve its shape, made of leather, leather- 
board, canvas stiffened with glue or shellac, or 
other material. Called also "box toe." 

Brogan. A heavy pegged or nailed work shoe of 

medium height. 
Broken Arch. (See Arch). 
Brushing. Finishing the edge, heel, or bottom with 

a polishing brush. 



The Terms Used in Shoemaking 303 

Buckram. Canvas stiffened with glue and used as a 
toe box or as a backing for shoe fabrics. 

Buffing. Scouring off the outer or grain side of 
leather. See bottom scouring. 

Button. The use of the button as a shoe fastening 
is of quite recent date, having increased very 
rapidly since about 1907. At the present time 
women's shoes have about one-half of the but- 
toned type. The latest tendency is to seek orna- 
mental effects through the use of special ma- 
terials for shoe buttons. 

Button Fly. The strip of leather in the front of the 
top of a button shoe having the button holes. 

Cabaretta. A tanned sheepskin of superior quality 
and finish. 

Calfskin. Skins of neat cattle, up to fifteen pounds 
weight. For trade convenience such are called 
"calfskin," those weighing from fifteen to twenty- 
five pounds, "kips," and all above twenty-five 
pounds are called hides. Calfskin makes a strong 
pliable leather highly susceptible to polish and to 
a dull, velvet or "Suede" finish, or to a patent 
leather finish. It has long been in use for all kinds 
of shoes. 

Calking Machine. An appliance to shape the inner 
sole of a shoe in conformity with the bottom of 
the foot. 

Carton. The pasteboard box in which each pair of 
shoes is packed. A comparatively late develop- 
ment in the trade. Formerly pairs of shoes were 
fastened together with strings at the heel; after 
that they were sometimes wrapped in pairs in 
ordinary paper. Standard sizes of cartons are 



7 



304 The Shoe Industry 

now generally used, for convenience in packing in 
cases and for uniformity in size when the cartons 
are placed upon shelves in the shoe store. 

Case. The box in which shoes are packed for ship- 
ment. Men's shoes are usually packed twelve 
pairs in a case; women's, twenty -four to thirty- 
six pairs. 

Channel. A slanting cut around the edge of the 
sole for convenience in stitching the top to the 
bottom of the shoe. The lip of the channel or 
the raised portion is cemented down after the 
stitching so as to preserve the stitch from immedi- 
ate wear. Channeling means preparing the chan- 
nel for the stitch. 

Channel Screwed. The bottom held to the upper 
by wire screws fastening in the channel. 

Channel Stitched. The soles fastened to the uppers 
by stitches which are concealed in the channel. 

Channel Turning. Raising the lip of sole leather, 
or channel, so that the stitching can be done be- 
neath it. 

Chrome-tanned. Tanned by the use of bichromate 
of potash and muriatic acid. 

Clicking. Cutting the uppers of shoes by a ma- 
chine. 

Closing On. Stitching the lining and outside to- 
gether at the top, wrong side out. 

Collar. A narrow strip of leather stitched around 
the outside of the shoe at the top. 

Colonial. A woman's low shoe with wide tongue 
and ornamental buckle. 

Combination Last. One having an instep of differ- 
ent width from that of the ball. Also a last that 



The Terms Used in Shoemaking 305 

will allow both low and high shoes to be made 
upon it. 
Congress Gaiter. A shoe having rubber goring for 
adjustment at the ankles. 

Copper Toe. A copper outer boxing to protect the 
toe in children's shoes. 

Counter. The stiffening in the back or heel part of 
a shoe to support the heel and prevent the shoe 
from running over, usually made of leather, leather- 
board, felt, or canvas stiffened with shellac or paste. 

Cravenette. A proprietary name for a closely 
woven cloth used in shoe uppers. 

Creasing Vamp. Making hollow grooves or wrinkles 
across the front of the vamp. 

Crimping. Shaping any part of the upper to con- 
form to the last. 

Cushion Sole. An elastic or padded inner sole, 
usually of felt. 

Custom-Made. Made by hand to special order and 
measurement. 

Cut-off Vamp. One cut off at the tip and stitched 
to the toe cap, not extending under the tip be- 
yond the tip stitching. 

Dieing or Dinking. Cutting soles or other parts 
of the shoe with machine and die. 

Dom Pedro. A heavy single-buckle shoe with 
bellows tongue, usually of a cheap grade. 

Dressing. A process for restoring the finish of the 
upper. Also used for the materials for cleaning 
and polishing the shoe. 

Edge Setting. Finishing and polishing the edge of 
the shoe. 



306 The Shoe Industry 

Edge Trimming. Cutting the edge of the shoe 
smoothly to conform to the shape of the last. 

Embossing. Stamping or carving figures and trade- 
marks on leather. 

Eyelet. A small ring of metal set in the lacing hole. 
The eyelet hole is sometimes worked with thread. 

Fabric. A general term for the cloths used in shoe- 
making. 

Facing. The leather used around the top of the 
shoe and down the eyelet row, inside. 

Fair Stitch. The stitching sometimes run around 
the edge of the sole to give the McKay the ap- 
pearance of the welt. 

Filler. A light, hollow, wooden form used to keep 
a shoe in shape. Called also "form." 

Findings. The small parts or accessories of a shoe, 
practically everything except leather and lining, 
such as laces, polishes, cement, nails, brushes, 
thread, and numerous other incidental articles 
used in the making and care of shoes. 

Finish. Polishing, buffing, or other final treatment 
of the soles of shoes. 

Fitting. The selection and adjustment of ready- 
made shoes to the foot of the wearer. In the old 
days of hand work, shoes were made to individual 
measurement. Such is still the case with the 
"custom shoe" where the added cost can be 
afforded. The factory-made shoe, of typical form, 
throws upon the salesman in the retail store the 
problem of fitting. Some adjustment can be pro- 
vided by stretching the upper or by moving but- 
tons, but it is chiefly a problem or right selection 
from standard patterns. 



The Tekms Used in Shoemaking 307 

Fitting Room. The department of the factory in 
which the various parts of the upper of the shoe 
are stitched together, before going to the lasting 
room. 

Form. (See heel.) Used also for the bench of the 
hand shoemaker. 

Foxing. That part of the upper extending from 
the sole to the lacing or adjustment in front, and 
to^ about the height of the counter in the back, 
being the full length of the upper. More simply, 
the lower part of the quarter. 

French Size Marking. A cipher or secret method 
of marking concealing from the customer the exact 
size of the shoe. Many varieties of this system 
are in use. 

Gaiter. A term now applied mainly to a separate 
ankle covering. 

Gem Insoles. A cloth-reinformed leather insole for 
welt shoes. 

Golf Shoe. A low shoe with rubber sole used for 
out-door sports. 

Goodyear Welt. The method of attaching the sole 
to the upper by the use of a narrow strip of leather 
called the welt. 

Gore. A rubber elastic used on both sides for the 
adjustment of a Congress shoe. 

Grading. The sorting of soles for uniform thick- 
ness in the edges of finished shoes. Also selecting 
skins for shoes of different prices. 

Half-Sole. Half of a complete sole used under the 
front part of the out sole. 

Heel. The leather or other material attached to 
the back part of the sole, or "heel seat," to give 



308 The Shoe Industry 

a desired height above the ground. The chief 
varieties are named after their style or shape. 
Their height is usually expressed in eighths of an 
inch. Heels are made in layers or lifts of leather, 
of wood, of leatherboard, and of substitutes for 
leather. The breast of the heel is its front face. 
The French heel is extremely high with a curved 
outline; the Cuban, high with a straight outline; 
the military, like the Cuban but lower; the spring 
heel is very low and formed by inserting a slip of 
leather between the out sole and the heel seat, so 
that the out sole forms the heel; the flange heel 
is made flaring toward the bottom. In women's 
fabric shoes heels are often covered with the same 
material as the upper. The "pitch" of a heel is 
its direction or inclination under the foot. Heels 
are attached to the heel seat by nails and cement- 
ing. The nails inside the shoe are covered by a 
small piece of felt or other substance called the 
heel pad. 

Heel Scouring. Sandpapering the outside surface 
of the heel. 

Heel Seat. The rounded part of the sole on which 
the heel is fastened. Heel seat nailing consists 
in nailing this part of the sole; heel seat trimming, 
smoothing this part. 

Heel Shaving. Shaping the heel by shaving off the 
surplus leather. 

Hemlock Tanned. Preserved by the use of hem- 
lock bark. 

Inseam Trimming. Cutting off surplus leather 
from the seam which fastens the upper to 
the bottom in the turn shoe and in the 
welt. 



The Terms Used in Shoemaking 309 

Insole. The inner sole of a sewed shoe, which is 
first placed upon the last. The inner soles are 
attached to both the upper and the out sole. 

Inspecting. Examining shoes for imperfections. 

Ironing Uppers. Smoothing the upper with a hot 
iron. 

Lace. A string of leather or fabric used in adjusting 
and holding the shoe to the foot. 

Lacer Stay. A strip of leather reinforcing the eye- 
let holes. 

Lap Stone. An iron plate or stone upon which the 
cobbler beats sole leather or seams or folded edges 
with a flat faced hammer. 

Last. The wooden or metal form upon which the 
shoe is constructed, and which gives the shoe its 
distinctive shape. 

Lasting. Stretching the upper tightly over and 
making it conform to the last. Assembling and 
pulling over the parts of the upper on the last. 

Leveling. Shaping the sole to the bottom of the 
last by the use of heavy rollers or moulds. 

Lift. A single thickness of the material used in the 
heel. 

Lining. The inside part of the upper, made of 
fabric or of thin, light-weight leather. 

Low-cut. A general term applying to such low 
shoes as Oxford, pump, tie, colonial, slipper, and 
sandal. 

McKay Sewed. A mode of shoemaking named 
after the inventor. After the upper is lasted upon 
the inner sole the last is removed and the outer 
sole is attached by a thread passing directly 
through the upper and inner sole. The out sole 



310 The Shoe Industry 

is generally channeled and the lining is put over 
the inner seam, on the inside of the shoe. This 
mode has lowered the cost of making medium- 
priced shoes. It is a less satisfactory mode than 
the welt process. 

Measurement. Taking the dimensions of the foot 
for custom made shoes. The chief points of 
measurement are, the ball of the foot, the waist, 
the instep, ankle, and total length. 

Moulding. Shaping the sole to conform to the 
bottom of the last. 

Naumkeaging. Smoothing up the bottom of the 
shoe with fine sandpaper after buffing on course 
sandpaper. 

Oak-Tanned. Preserved by means of oak bark. 
Regarded as the best tanning of sole leather. 

Oxford. A low-cut shoe in lace, strap, or button, 
made in men's, women's, and children's sizes. 
This style is said to have been first worn in Oxford, 
England, over three hundred years ago. 

Pasted Counter. Made of two pieces of sole leather 
pasted together. 

Pattern. Metal or cardboard model or form by 
which any part of the shoe upper is cut. 

Pegging. Attaching the outer sole with pegs. 

Perforating. Making decorative holes around upper 
parts. Also the term for the work done on the 
edges of the upper after skiving and folding. 

Polish. Ladies' and misses' front-laced, high-cut 
shoe, originating in Poland. 

Pressing. Applying a flat-press to heels and 
soles. 

Pulling Lasts. Removing lasts from shoes. 



The Terms Used in Shoemaking 311 

Pulling Over. Drawing the upper over the last and 

tacking it into position. 
Pump. A shoe cut below the instep and having no 

fastening. 
Quarter. The rear part of the upper when a full 

vamp is not used. 
Rand. A strip of sole leather made thin on one 

edge and placed around between the heel and 

the sole, to fill empty space and balance the 

heel. 
Relasting. Putting lasts in shoes from which the 

original lasts have been drawn. 

Repairing. Filling cracks in patent leather on the 
finished shoe. Any cobbling work. 

Rolling. Passing leather between rolls to make it 
firm and durable. Also, polishing shoe bottoms 
on a roll bearing a brush. 

Rough Rounding. Shaping the outsole to the last, 
and channeling also in the welt-channeled shoe. 
One of the hardest of processes. 

Royalties. Sums based on production paid by shoe 
manufacturers for the use of machines when 
hired of the machine companies or for protected 
processes. 

Rubber Cement. A powerful, quick-drying solution 
of rubber, often used in leather shoemaking and 
shoe repairing. 

Rubber Shoes. Footwear in considerable variety 
from the sandal to the hip length boot. The 
low rubber overshoe is the most common. Rubber 
footwear consists of fabric coated with rubber. 
Rubber heels and soles are used more and more 
on shoes of leather or fabric tops. 



312 The Shoe Industry 

Sample. In the shoe trade a single shoe to show 
the character of an entire lot. As a rule samples 
are made up by factories twice a year, in the 
spring and fall, and carried by the traveling sales- 
men on their routes. Shoes are then made in the 
factory from the orders received upon each sample. 

Sandal. A woman's or child's strap slipper. 

Screw Fastened. Having the bottom attached to the 
upper with wire screw nails, as in some heavy shoes. 

Shank. A strip of metal or other material used 
between the inner and outer sole, between the 
heel and the ball, to stiffen the sole of the shoe. 
Also, this part of the shoe. 

Shank Burnishing. Polishing the black shank part 
of the shoe with a hot iron. Shanks are finished 
in black or in colors. 

Shanking Out. Thinning and smoothing the shank 
part of the shoe. 

Size. The length measure of the shoe on standard 
widths. The length is expressed by numbers or 
the French cipher and the widths by letters. 
American and English sizes vary by one-third of 
an inch. The American size system runs from 
to 13 J, and then starts over again at 1. The 
infants' size runs from to 5; children's from 
5 to 11; misses', from 11| to 13§ and then to 2 in 
the second series; women's, from 2§ to 8; little 
men's, from 8 to 13|; youths', from 1 to 2; boys', 
from 2§ to 5|, and men's from 6 to 12. Larger 
sizes are made on special orders. 

Skiving. Cutting sole leather to a uniform thick- 
ness. Shaving upper leather, especially, to a thin 
edge, in the cutting or stitching department. 



The Terms Used in Shoemaking 313 

Slipper. A name for low footwear, other than rub- 
ber, without special means of fastening to the foot. 

Slugging. Driving slugs, or short nails, in heels. 

Sneaker. A rubber-soled canvas shoe for out-door 
wear. 

Sock Lining. The lining which covers the McKay 
insole. 

Soft Tips. Having no box toe under the tip. 

Soles and Sole Leather. The pieces of heavy 
leather, mainly, from neat animals and used in 
the soles of shoes. 

Sole Laying. The preliminary process of attaching 
the out-sole in position for stitching, nailing, or 
pegging. 

Sorting. The process of arranging out-soles or upper 
leather by grades. 

Split. A layer of a hide which has been cut into 
thicknesses. 

Spring. The deviation from a straight line at the 
toe or arch of a shoe. 

Stamping. Putting size and width on the inside of 
the shoe, or the name on the bottom, or marks 
on the carton. 

Stay. A piece of leather used to strengthen a part 
or seam. 

Stitch Separating. Marking indentations between 
stitches to make the stitching conspicuous. 

Stitched Aloft. Sewed without channeling, so that 
the stitches show on the bottom. The name 
comes from the manner of the holding of the 
shoe in the process, bottom up. 

*19 



314 The Shoe Industry 

Stock Keeping. Caring for stock in storage, fol- 
lowing sales, and keeping a supply on hand. 
The manufacturer must know how his styles are 
selling and how large his supply must be to keep 
ahead of his trade. Accurate and proper stock 
keeping is very important in shoe manufacture. 

Stripping. Cutting hides into strips wide enough to 
make soles of a desired size. 

Style. The shape, model, or material determined 
by standards in use or in fashion, or by forms 
which manufacturers desire to put upon the 
market. A particular pattern or design, applying 
to the shoe as a whole or to any part which may be 
given special distinction. 

Tan. From the Norman-French word for oak 
bark. A yellowish brown color given by the bark 
used in tanning, finished without applying special 
colors. 

Tanning. Converting hides and skins into leather 
by astringent acids or mineral substances. 

Tap. An outer half sole. 

Tempering. Softening leather in water. 

Tip. The toe piece stitched to the outside of the 
vamp. Often of different leather than that of the 
rest of the shoe, as "patent tip." 

Tongue. A narrow piece of leather placed beneath 
the lacing or other fastening of a shoe. 

Top. The part of the upper above the vamp. 

Top Facing. The leather or band of cloth around 
the inside of the shoe top. 

Top Lift. The outer piece of leather in the heel. 

Top Stitching. Sewing across the top and down 
the side. 



The Terms Used in Shoemaking 315 

Treeing. Shaping the shoe, smoothing it in the 
treeing room. 

Trimming Cutting. Cutting stays, facings, and 
other small parts of the shoe upper. 

Turned Shoe. A woman's fine shoe, of flexible 
sole, with upper stitched to the sole wrong side 
out, the shoe being then turned right side out. 
One of the three chief methods of shoemaking 
at the present time. 

Turnover. The gross amount of sales in com- 
parison with the gross amount of stock. 

Upper. A collective term for the parts above the 
sole and heel of a shoe. 

Vamp. The front or lower part of the upper. A 
"cut-off" vamp extends only to the tip. A 
"whole vamp" extends to heel without a seam. 
The vamp is the most important part of the upper 
and should be made of the best leather. 

Vamping. Sewing the vamps to the top. 

Viscolizing. A patent method of making sole 
leather waterproof by treating it with oil emul- 
sions. 

Welt. A narrow strip of leather sewed to the upper 
and insole, having the edge of the welt extending 
outward so that the outsole can be attached by 
sewing through welt and outsole around the out- 
side. This is the most modern and best method 
of shoemaking. "Goodyear Welt" is a welt 
sewed by the Goodyear welting machine. 

The three chief kinds of sewed shoes, from 
methods used in making, are the welt, the McKay, 
and the turned shoe. 

Welt Beating. Flattening out the welt, after sewing. 



516 The Shoe Industry 

Welting. The material used for the welt. Also 

sewing the welt to the shoe. 
Wheeling. Running a corrugated wheel around 

the edge or bottom of a shoe, to give finish or to 

imitate stitching. 
Width. More properly the girth of the ball, waist, 

and instep of the foot or last. Widths vary in 

quarter inches of these measurements from "double 

narrow" to "double wide," through the series 

of sizes. 



Shoe and Leather Bibliography 317 

SHOE AND LEATHER BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Aaron, Charles F. From Pasture to Pulley. New York v 
Leather Belting Co., New York, 1907. 

American Shoemaking Directory. Rogers and Atwood 
Publishing Co., Boston, 1916. 

Annual Report of the Massachusetts State Board of 
Conciliation and Arbitration for 1911. Public Docu- 
ment No. 40, Boston. 

Bennett, Hugh Garner. The Manufacture of Leather. 
Constable and Company, Ltd., London, 1909. 

Bolles, Albert S. Industrial History of the United 
States. The Henry Bill Publishing Co., Norwich, Conn., 
1878. 

Dooley, William H. A Manual of Shoemaking and Leather V 
and Rubber Products. Little, Brown, and Company, 
Boston, 1912. 

Dreier, Thomas. The Story of Three Partners. United 
Shoe Machinery Co., Boston, 1912. 

Employers' Welfare Work. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 
U. S. Department of Labor, Miscellaneous Series: No. 4, 
Washington, 1913. 

Footwear of Soldiers, The. United Shoe Machinery Co., 
Boston, 1914. / 

Gannon, Fred A. Shoe Making Old and New. Fred A. 
Gannon, Lynn, Mass., 1911. 

Gold, Guy D. The Shoe City Reader. The New American 
Association, Brockton, Mass., 1913. 

Golding, F. Y. The Manufacture of Boots and Shoes./ 
Chapman and Hall, Limited, London, 1902. 

Goodyear Welt Shoes : How They Are Made. United Shoe 
Machinery Co., Boston, 1911. 

Hanson, William C, and William W. Walcott. Hygiene 
of the Boot and Shoe Industry in Massachusetts. State 
Board of Health, Boston, 1912. 

Hatfield, C. B. Boot and Shoe Patterns. Superintendent 
and Foreman, Boston, 1899. 



318 The Shoe Industry 

v^Hill, Herbert, and Henry Yeoman. A Manual of Boot 

and Shoe Manufacture. Boot and Shoe Trades Journal, 

London. 
How to Dress a Store Window. The Boot and Shoe Recorder 

Publishing Co., Boston, 1908. 
Jorissen, Dr. Franz. Die Deutsche Leder-und Leder- 

waren-Industrie. Text dreisprachig: deutsch, englisch, 

franzosisch. Druck und Verlag: Vereinigte Verlagsanstalten 

Gustav Braunbek und Guten Verg-Druckerei Akt.-Ges., 

Berlin, 1909. 
Library of Factory Management, The. Six volumes. 

A. W. Shaw Company, Chicago, 1915. 
Munson, Edward L. The Soldiers' Foot and the Military 

Shoe. Agents U. S. Cavalry Association, Fort Leaven- 
worth, Kansas, 1912. 
Primer of Boots and Shoes, A. United States Machinery 

Co., Boston, 1914. 
Proctor, H. H. The Making of Leather. G. P. Putnam's 

Sons, New York, 1915. 
^.Nichols, Fred Hammond, Compiler. The Building of a 

Shoe. Thos. P. Nichols and Son Co., Lynn, Mass., 1912. 
Redfield, Hon. William C. The New Industrial Day. 1914. 
Shoe and Leather Lexicon, The. Boot and Shoe Recorder 

Publishing Co., Boston, 1912. 
Women in the Boot and Shoe Industry in Massachusetts. 

Women's Educational and Industrial Union, Boston. 

Bulletin No. 180, U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1916. 
Small, Frederick L. Comprehensive Accounting Methods. 

The L. and S. Printing Company, Boston, 1914. 
Storm, Donald T. Fifty Lessons in Advertising. Boot 

and Shoe Recorder Publishing Co., Boston, 1911. 
Technology of Boot and Shoe Manufacture, The. The 

Burlington Publishing Co., Limited, London. 
Unemployment. American Labor Legislation Review, Vol. 

IV, No. 2, New York, May 19, 1914. 
Wages and Hours of Labor in the Boot and Shoe Industry. 

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U. S. Department of Labor, 

Wages and Hours of Labor Series, Washington: No. 4, 1890 

to 1912; No. 13, 1907 to 1913; and No. 19, 1907 to 1914. 



Shoe anb Leather Bibliography 319 

Wage-Earning Women in Stores and Factories. Vol. V, 
Keport on Women and Child Wage-Earners in the United 
States. Senate Document No. 645, Government Printing 
Office, Washington, 1910. 

What Constitutes a Good Salesman. Boot and Shoe Re- 
corder Company, Boston. 

Workmen's Compensation Laws of the United States and 
Foreign Countries. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U. S. De- 
partment of Labor, Workmen's Insurance and Compensation 
Series: No. 5, Washington, 1914. 



SHOE AND LEATHER JOURNALS 

American Shoemaking, weekly. Boston. 
Boot and Shoe Recorder, weekly. Boston. 
Coast Shoe Reporter, monthly. San Francisco. 
Journal of American Leather Chemists' Association. 

Easton, Pa. 
Hide and Leather, weekly. Chicago. 
The Leather Manufacturer, monthly. Boston. 
Modern Shoemaking, weekly. Boston. 

New England Shoe and Leather Industry, monthly. Boston 
Shoe and Leather Facts, monthly. Philadelphia. 
Shoe and Leather Reporter, weekly. Boston. 
Shoe Retailer, weekly. Boston. 
Shoe Repairer and Dealer, monthly. Boston 
The Shoeman, semi-monthly. Boston. 
Shoe Topics, weekly. Boston. 
Superintendent and Foreman, weekly. Boston. 
Weekly Bulletin of Shoe News. Boston. 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX 



Acid-tanned, 300 

Adjustment, 300 

Anatomic, 300 

Antinoe, city of, 26 

Apprentice, in last century, 28 

Arch, 300 

Assembling, 300; department, 

153; positions, 154 
Astringent acids, 89, 99 
Automatic machine, 177, 275 

Backstay, 300 

Back strap, 300 

Bal, 300 

Ball, 301 

Barring machine, 177 

Beading, 301 

Beard, Thomas, 27 

Beating out, 301 

Bellows tongue, 301 

Belting, 301 

Bench-made, 301 

Bend, 301 

"Binding," 34, 58 

Blackball, 301 

Blacking the edge, 301 

Blake, Lyman R., 58, 124 

Blind nailing, 221 

Blind eyelet, 301 

Blocking, 302 

Blucher, 164, 302 

Boot, 302 

Boots and shoes, value of prod- 
ucts for leading states, 1909 
and 1899, 47 

Boston Continuation School, 
269-271 

Boston School Committee, 269, 
270 

Bottom filling, 302 

Bottom finishing, 302 

Bottom scouring, 302 

Bottom stock fitting, 188 



Box, 302 

Box calf, 97 

Box factory, 113 

Box toe department, 113 

Breed, Ebenezer, and the shoe 

tariff, 36, 39, 90 
Brockton, 45, 46 
Brogan, 302 
Broken arch, 302 
Brushing, 302 
Buckram, 303 
Buckskin, 98 
Buffing, 303 
Business departments of 

shoe manufacture, 109; the 

usual officers, 109; chart of, 

111 
"Business Employments," the 

volume upon, 109 
Business organization, 43 
Button, 303 
Button fly, 303 
Buttonhole department, 173; 

positions, 172 

Cabaretta, 303 

Calfskin, 97, 303; special terms, 
97, 98 

Calking machine, 303 

Canvas reinforcement, 191 

Carton, 303 

Case, 304 

Census, first United States, 35; 
of 1909, 44 

Census statistics: Boots and 
shoes, value for leading states, 
47; table I, general statistics, 
48; table II, boot and shoe cut 
stock, 49; table III, findings, 
50; table IV, exports of boots 
and shoes, 51 ; leather, value for 
leading states, 103; table V, 
imports of hides and skins, 104, 



(321) 



Alphabetical Index 



105 ; table VI, number of boots, 
shoes, and slippers made by 
each method of manufacture, 
132; table VII, average wages 
per hour, weekly earning, and 
hours per week, by years, 
cutting department, 156, 157; 
table VIII, average wages 
per hour, weekly earnings, 
and hours per week, by states, 
cutting department, 158, 159; 
table IX, wages, weekly earn- 
ings, and hours, by years, 
fitting department, 17&-181; 
table X, wages, weekly earn- 
ings, and hours, by states, 
fitting department, 182, 183; 
table XI, wages, weekly earn- 
ings, and hours, by years, sole 
leather department, 197; table 

XII, wages, weekly earnings, 
and hours, by states, sole 
leather department, 198; table 

XIII, wages, weekly earnings, 
and hours, by years, lasting 
department, 230-232; table 

XIV, wages, weekly earnings, 
and hours, by states, lasting 
department, 234, 235; table 

XV, wages, weekly earnings, 
and hours, by years, bottom- 
ing department, 236-239; 
table XVI, wages, weekly 
earnings, and hours, by states, 
bottoming department, 240- 
243; table XVII, wages, 
weekly earnings, and hours, 
by years, finishing depart- 
ment, 254; table XVIII, 
wages, weekly earnings ; and 
hours, by states, finishing 
department, and other em- 
ployees in all departments, 
256, 257; table XIX, hours, 
wages, weekly earnings, and 
employees, in the principal 
occupations in 1914, 286, 287; 
variations in number of em- 
ployees, payrolls, and earn- 
ings, 288 ' K table XX, sex and 
age distribution by leading 
industries, 1909, 290, 291 



Central administrative offices, 
116 

Chamois, 97 

Channel, 304 

Channeling, 190 

Channel laying, 210 

Channel screwed, 304 

Channel stitched, 304 

Channel turning, 304 

Chemist, 295 

Chrome-tanned, 90, 100, 304 

Cities, leading, 44, 45 

Clicking, 304; machine, 148; 
illustration, 149 

Closing on, 304 

Closing and. staying department, 
169; positions, 170 

Cobbler, 27, 34, 292 

Collar, 304 

Colonial, 304 

Colonial times, 32 

Coltskin, 99 

Combination last, 304 

Congress gaiter, 305 

Copper toe, 305 

Cordova, 26 

Cordwainers' Company, Lon- 
don, 26 

Counter, 138, 305; department, 
193 

Counting, marking, and skiving 
department, 152 

Cravenette, 305 

Creasing vamp, 305 

Crimping, 305 

Cripple girls, 169 

Cross section, of a Goodyear 
welt shoe, 125; of a McKay 
sewed, 126; of a standard 
screwed, 127; of a pegged, 128 

Cushion sole, 305 

Custom-made, 305 

Cutter, 36, 145-148, 191, 195 

Cutting room, 145 

Cut-off vamp, 305 

Cut-sole industry, 101, 102 

Day sheet, 138, 141; typical, 

140 
Dagyr, John Adam, 28 
Designer, pattern, 79, 80, 83; 

assistant, 83 



Alphabetical Index 



323 



Destouy, Auguste, 59, 124 
Detail in shoe manufacture, 135; 
number of processes, 135, 136 
Dickerson, Philemon, 90 
Dieing, 305 
Dieing out straps, 153 
Dinking machine, 144 
Dom Pedro, 305 
Dressing, 305 
Dry hides, 99 

Edge setting, 305 

Edge setting machine, 210 

Edge trimming, 306 

Efficiency engineer, 274 

Efficiency methods, 274 

Embossing, 250, 306 

Employment conditions and sup- 
plementary material, 261-295 

Employment department, 109; 
manager, 109 

Employees, six division of, 261; 
processes given to male, 262; 
deivisions among departments, 
262; records, 265; average 
earnings of, 285; chart of 
variations in number, 288 

Enamel leather, 96 

European war, 92 

Executive officers, 109, 110 

Eyelet, 306 

Fabrics, 92 

Facing, 306 

Factory departments of shoe 
manufacture, 112; chart of, 
114; additional, 247, 248 

Factory hours, 42 

Factory management, chart of, 
115; offices, 110, 116 

Factory manager, 80 

Factory service and office ser- 
vice, 112 

Fair stitch, 306 

Filler, 306 

Findings, 306 

Finish, 306 

Finishing department, 112 

Finishing, treeing, packing, and 
shipping, 247-257 

Fitting, 306; department, 113; 
room, 307 



Foreman, 145, 154, 189, 272, 

273; assistant, 273 
Forewomen, 166, 168, 173, 174; 

273 
Form, 25, 307 
Foxing, 307; department, 170; 

positions, 171 
French size marking, 307 

Gaiter, 307 

"Gangs," 40 

Gem insoles, 307 

General manager, 109 

General offices, 110 

Golf shoe, 307 

Goodyear, Charles, 59 

Goodyear welt machine, 59; 
channeling machine, 190; 
stitching machine, illustra- 
tion, 219 

Goodyear welt shoe, 124, 125; 
welt, 307 

Gore, 307 

Grading, 307; machine, 82 

Green hides, 99 

Gun metal, 98 

Hand cutter, 145-148 
Hand processes, 275 
Half sole, 307 

Heel, 307; department, 113, 
194; processes, 194; positions 
in department, 195 
Heel breasting machine, 221 
Heeling department, 221; po- 
sitions, 222; machine, 227 
Heel seat, 308; nailing, 209, 217 
Heel scouring, 308; machine, 

221; shaving, 308 
Heel trimming, 221 
Heels fastened by pegs, 56 
Hemlock tanned, 89, 99-101, 

308 
Hides and skins, tannery divi- 
sion of, 93 

Indenture paper, 28 
Industrial education, quotation 

from a report, 267 
Ingalls, Francis, 90 
Inseam trimming, 308 
Insole, 187, 309 



324 



Alphabetical Index 



Inspecting, 251, 309 
Inspector, 143, 166, 168, 173 
Instruction of operators, 64 
Ironing, 250, 309 

Journeyman, 34 
Joyce, Joseph L., 61 
Junk-board, 81 

Kertland, Philip, 27 
Kid, 96; varieties, 96, 97 

Labor, distinction between capi- 
tal and, 39; division of in the 
factory, 40; securing skilled, 
265 

Labor statistics, U. S. Bureau of, 
154, 284 

Lace, 309; shoes, 129; stay, 309 

Lapstone, 57, 309 

Last, 309 

Last, 36, 71, 309; shaping of, 71; 
material, 72; lathe, 73; model, 
74; devices for reducing, 75; 
Arnold hinged, 75; storage, 
75; worker, 76; standardiza- 
tion, 82 

Lasting, 309; department, 202; 
positions, 205; machine, illus- 
tration, 207 

Last-making, 71-76; hand, 72; 
modern, 73; machine, or 
lathe, 73, 74 

Lasters, hand, 60 

Leading industries, 289-292 

Leasing system, 63, 67 

Leather, its nature, 89; tanning, 
89; American manufacturing, 
90; increasing shortage of, 
91, 92; substitutes, 92, 101; 
hideite, 93; a side of, 94, 95; 
divisions of in shoe factories, 
94; varieties of upper, 94; 
sole, 99; oak, hemlock, union, 
99-^-101; tanned, curried, and 
finished, value for leading 
states, 102 

Leatherboard, 92 

Leather sorter, 142 

Leveling, 210, 309 

Libraries, 277 

Lift, 309 



Lining, 309; department, 164; 

positions, 166 
Lining and cloth-cutting section, 

144; positions, 145; sorter, 143 
Linings, 135, 153, 164, 166, 172, 

218 
Low-cut, 309 
Lynn, first home of the industry, 

44, 46 

Machine, upper-stitching, 56; 
sole-sewing, 56; McKay, 41, 
57, 58; welting, 56; pegging, 
57; rolling, 57; Howe sewing, 
58; Goodyear welt, 59; edge- 
trimming and heel-trimming, 
59; lasting, 60; operating, 63 

Machinery, introduction, 43, 60; 
invention of shoe, 55; devel- 
opment, 56; care of, 64; 
standardization, 67; in tan- 
ning, 91 

McKay bottoming department, 
217; processes, 217; positions, 
218 

McKay, Gordon, 58, 59, 63, 
124 

McKay insole department, 188; 
positions, 189 

McKay sewed, 309; illustration, 
126 

Making department, 112, 113, 
201-243; divisions, 201; work 
in, 229 

Massachusetts State Board of 
Health, 280 

Mathies, Robert, 58 

Matzeliger, Jan Ernest, 60 

Measurement, 310 

Measuring upper leather, 141 

Mechanics, 64 

Medical attendance, 277, 279 

Methods in shoe manufacture, 
123-132; per cent, of each in 
total production, 129, 130 

Middle Ages, 25 

Moccasin of the American In- 
dian, 27 

Model grader, 83 

Modern shoe factory, 113-119 

Monotony of shoemaking, 275 

Moulding, 310 



Alphabetical Index 



325 



National Boot and Shoe Manu- 
facturers' Association, 267, 
271 

National Society for the Promo- 
tion of Industrial Education, 
269, 271 

Naumkeag buffing machine, 213 

Naumkeaging, 310 

New England Shoe and Leather 
Association, 269 

New England shoe and leather 
production, 45, 46 

Nichols, John Brooks, 58 

Nicking, 153 

North Shore district, 45 

Novelties, 91 

Oak-tanned, 89, 99-101 

Office manager, 109 

Ooze, 98 

Operations, machine, 55; hand, 

55 
Outer sole department, 192; 

positions, 192 
Oxford, 164, 310 

Packing, 112; department, 251; 
positions, 252 

Pasted counter, 310 

Patent leather, 96, 248, 249 

Patent office, United States, 55 

Patents on shoe machinery, 55 

Pattern, 79; designer, 79; sample, 
80; model, 80; number to a 
shoe, 81; material, 81; mak- 
ing, 82; standardization, 82; 
storage, 83; price, 83. 

Pattern-maker, 80, 81, 83 

Pattern-making, 79; depart- 
ment, 80; machine, 83; posi- 
tions, 83 

Peg, wooden, 56; machine- 
made, 57 

Pegging, 310 

Pennsylvania, 32, 33 

Perforating, 167, 310 

Piece and time payment, 283 

Polish shoe, 164, 310 

Porter, William, and Sons, 58 

Power grader, 83 

Power machine, 177 

President, 109 



Pressing, 310 

Printing department, 113 

Processes, number of in making 

an ordinary shoe, 55; best 

paying, 283 
Promotion, 265 
Pulling lasts, 310 
Pulling over, 311 
Pulling over machine, 61, 202; 

illustration, 203 
Pump, 166, 311 
Putnam, General, 35 

Quality man, 191, 273 
Quantity man, 191, 273 
Quarter, 172, 311 

Rand, 311 

Randing, 190 

Rebellion, War of the, 91 

Receipt of an order, 136 

Reinforced insoles, 190 

Relasting, 311 

Relief fund, 279 

Repair shop earnings, 295 

Repairing, 311 

Repairing industry, 292 

Revolution, the, 35 

Rickerman, Isaac, 27 

"Roadmen," 64 

Rolling, 311 

Romans, the, 25 

Rose, William, 90 

Rough rounding, 206, 311; ma- 
chine, illustration, 215 

Rounding machine, 187, 188 

Royalties, 311 

Royalty stamps, facsimiles of 
early, 65 

Rubber, 93; cement, 311; shoes, 
311 

Russia calfskin, 98 

Sales manager, 80 

Salesman, traveling, 79 

Sample, 312 

Sandal, 25, 312; ancient Egyp- 
tian makers, 25, 26 

Sanitary conditions, 280-283 

Schools and courses for shoe- 
making, 266-271 

Screw fastened, 312 



326 



Alphabetical Index 



Seasons, 263, 289 

Sex and age distribution of wage- 
earners, 289 

Shank, 312; development, 62; 
burnishing, 312 

Shanking out, 312 

Sheepskin, 99 

Shipping, 112; department, 252; 
positions, 253 

Shoe factories, first, 39 

Shoe factory, entering, 264 

Shoe foreman, 272, 273; assist- 
ant, 273 

Shoe and Leather Association, 
New England, 45 

Shoe industry, magnitude of the, 
today, 44; capital invested, 
1909, 44; number of employ- 
ees, 1909 and now, 44 

Shoe laws, ancient, 33 

Shoe manufacture, department 
of, 109; power in, 61; highly 
specialized, 263; report upon 
industrial education in, 267 

Shoe repairing industry, 292-295 

Shoe superintendent, 109, 166, 
168, 271; assistant, 273 

Shoe tag, 136, 138; typical, 139 

Shoe tariff, 36 

Shoemaker, 25, 43; itinerant, 33 

Shoemakers, first American, 27; 
New England, 35; Dutch, 35; 
attitude of early towards the 
shoe factory, 42 

Shoemaking, American, 28; era 
of machine, 58 

Shoemaking a trade, 264; monot- 
ony of, 275; offsets to monot- 
ony, 275; efforts to lessen 
monotony, 276 

Shoe shop of a century ago, 35; 
old time beside a modern fac- 
tory, 37 

Shoe shops, first, 34 

Shoes, ancient and mediaeval, 25, 
26; English-made, 36; value 
of in Colonial times, 32 

Size, 312 

Skin showing how patterns are 
placed in cutting, 147 

Skiving, 152, 312; positions in, 
153 



Slashing, 190 

Slipper, 313 

Slugging, 221, 313 

Sneaker, 313 

Social clubs, 277 

Social service, 109, 277-280; 
quotations from a government 
study, 277 

Sock lining, 313 

Suede leather, 96 

Soft tips, 313 

Sole laying, 206, 313; leveling, 
210; sewing, 209 

Sole leather department, 112, 
116, 187-198; employees, 196 

Sole leveling machine, 210; il- 
lustration, 223 

Soles, 187 

Sorter, 142, 143 

Sorting, 310 

Sorting department, positions, 
143 

Spanish War, 91 

Specialists, 43 

Speed, 275 

Split, 93, 313 

Spring, 313 

Stamping, 313; machine, 153 

Stages in Goodyear welt manu- 
facture, 130; illustration, 131 

Standard screw, pegged and 
nailed departments, 226 

Statics (see Census) 

States, leading, 44, 45, 47 

Stay, 313 

Stitch separating, 313 

Stitched aloft, 313 

Stitching department, 112, 113, 
116, 163-183; processes, 163; 
number of parts, 164; divi- 
sions, 164; chart, 165 

Stitching machine, operating, 176 

Stock keeping, 314; fitting, 42 

Stripping, 314 

Style, 314 

Subsidiary factories, 102 

System, factory, 39; quotation 
on contract, 41; organization, 
43, 63, 67 

Tan, 314 

Tanners, American, 91 



Alphabetical Index 



327 



Tanning, 89-91, 99-101, 173, 

314 
Tap, 314 
Teacher, 173 
Teams, 40 
Tempering, 314 
Terms used in shoemaking, 299- 

316 
Teutonic tribes, 25 
Thebes, 25 
Time and pay statistics in the 

cutting department, 154 
Tip, 314; department, 164, 166; 

positions, 168; repairing de- 
partment, 248 
Toe box department, 193 
Toe boxes, 187 
Toe closing department, 164; 

175; positions, 176 
Toe and heel wiping, 202 
Tongue, 314 
Top, 314; facing, 314; lift, 314; 

stitching, 314; stitcher, 172, 

173 
Top stitching department, 172; 

positions, 173 
Training classes, 277 
Treasurer, 109 
Treeing, 112, 315; department, 

249; positions, 251 
Trimming cutting, 315 
Trimmings, 135, 153, 164 
Trowbridge, William F., 61 
Turned shoe, 129, 315; depart- 



ment, 222; lasting, 222; posi- 
tions, 225 
Turnover, 315 

United Shoe Machinery Com- 
pany, 26 

Upper, 315 

Upholstering, 91 

Upper leather department, 112, 
116, 135-159; chart of, 137 

Upper leather room, 141 

Upper trimming machine, 205 

Vamp, 175, 315 

Vampers, 173 

Vamping, 164; department, 175; 

positions, 175 
Viscolizing, 315 
Vice-president, 109 

Wages and variation in employ- 
ment, 284 

Welfare manager, 109 

Welt, 315; beating, 206, 315; 
finishing, 210 

Welt bottoming department, 
205; positions, 213 

Welt insole department, 189; 
positions, 191 

Welting, 316 

Wetting, 190 

Wheeling, 316 

Width, 316 

Willow calf, 98 

Wooldredge, John, 58 



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